// More than 1,600 Co-op workers have taken action against the business over complaints
// The Co-op has now conceded a “comparability concession” in the case
Co-op shop floor workers have won a key legal argument in a battle to secure equal pay with warehouse staff.
More than 1,600 mostly female Co-op workers took action against the Manchester-headquartered business over complaints that they are being paid less than colleagues in the retailer’s distribution centres.
The shop-workers said they should receive pay similar to the mostly male distribution colleagues, who were paid up to £3 more an hour.
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The Co-op has now conceded a “comparability concession” in the case, a step towards recognising the different roles are of equal value.
But it said its workers were “fairly” paid and the battle was far from over.
It comes amid similar equal pay battles at rival supermarkets Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.
Tom Hewitt of solicitors Leigh Day, which is representing the workers, said Co-op shop floor workers had now “cleared the first hurdle in their claims for equal pay”.
“We hope that Co-op recognises that they can no longer deny that the work store workers do is of equal value to that of their distribution centre colleagues,” he said.
A spokesman for the Co-op said: “Our colleagues play an important role in feeding the nation and it’s central to the Co-op’s values that we pay them fairly for the work that they do in supporting communities.
“We believe that we pay our colleagues fairly for the roles that they do, and so will continue to defend these claims.”
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