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This is the stupidest thing I have head of in a while. They signed up to jobs which pay a particular wage and agreed to it. The gender difference is only a headline grabber and has no relation to the actual pay conditions. Please tell me that the law is going to see sense here....
Article http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/asda-may-face-mass-legal-claim-over-equal-pay/ar-BBaWz37?ocid=mailsignout
Supermarket giant Asda could face mass legal action from tens of thousands of employees who claim they are underpaid compared with colleagues doing the similar work.
Legal firm Leigh Day said it had been approached by 19,000 people – mostly women – after it announced it was taking action against the retailer.
The legal business said the case centres around women employed in Asda’s stores being paid less than male colleagues doing a similar work in its distribution chain.
“In the supermarkets the check-out staff and shelf-stackers are mostly women,” said Michael Newman, an employment law specialist at Leigh Day. “The people in the warehouses are pretty much all men. And, as a whole, the group that is mostly men gets paid more.”
“Our investigations suggest that the jobs are pretty much the same, in that warehouse staff are responsible for taking items off shelves, putting them on pallets and loading them into lorries.
“In the supermarket, they do the reverse: taking the pallets off the lorries, unstacking them and putting the items on the shelves.
“Where the jobs are not similar, we still think they are of equal value.”
If Asda, which has 170,000 staff working across 370 stores and 23 depots, loses the claim it could be forced to pay staff the difference in wages going back six years.
Mr Newman added: “Although there have been huge advancements in equal pay within the public sector, there is still a long way to go in the private sector. Compulsory audits are the only way to make sure the gender pay gap is being narrowed.
“Until now cases simply have not been brought, so you still get very segregated workplaces.”
Asda was unable to comment immediately.
Article http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/asda-may-face-mass-legal-claim-over-equal-pay/ar-BBaWz37?ocid=mailsignout
Supermarket giant Asda could face mass legal action from tens of thousands of employees who claim they are underpaid compared with colleagues doing the similar work.
Legal firm Leigh Day said it had been approached by 19,000 people – mostly women – after it announced it was taking action against the retailer.
The legal business said the case centres around women employed in Asda’s stores being paid less than male colleagues doing a similar work in its distribution chain.
“In the supermarkets the check-out staff and shelf-stackers are mostly women,” said Michael Newman, an employment law specialist at Leigh Day. “The people in the warehouses are pretty much all men. And, as a whole, the group that is mostly men gets paid more.”
“Our investigations suggest that the jobs are pretty much the same, in that warehouse staff are responsible for taking items off shelves, putting them on pallets and loading them into lorries.
“In the supermarket, they do the reverse: taking the pallets off the lorries, unstacking them and putting the items on the shelves.
“Where the jobs are not similar, we still think they are of equal value.”
If Asda, which has 170,000 staff working across 370 stores and 23 depots, loses the claim it could be forced to pay staff the difference in wages going back six years.
Mr Newman added: “Although there have been huge advancements in equal pay within the public sector, there is still a long way to go in the private sector. Compulsory audits are the only way to make sure the gender pay gap is being narrowed.
“Until now cases simply have not been brought, so you still get very segregated workplaces.”
Asda was unable to comment immediately.
