Morrisons workers have made a major step forward in their equal pay case, following a judgment handed by the Employment Tribunal.
The claimants, mostly female employees in the supermarket chain‘s stores, are fighting for equal pay for work of equal value compared to predominantly male workers in the retailer’s distribution centres.
This latest judgment follows the conclusion of the final Stage 2 Equal Value hearing, held at Leeds Employment Tribunal in late 2024.
The tribunal’s decision focused on finalising job descriptions for four female retail workers and one male comparator working in one of the distribution centres. These descriptions will now be used by independent experts to score the roles based on key factors such as experience, responsibility, and working conditions.
As part of the ongoing legal process, the scoring exercise will help determine whether the hourly-paid roles in stores are of equal value to those in distribution centres. This is in line with the Equality Act 2010, which allows for equal pay even when jobs are not identical but require similar skill, responsibility, and effort.
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Represented by law firm Leigh Day, Morrisons’ equal pay claim was first launched against the grocer in November 2018 by GMB union, representing over 7,520 workers.
Leigh Day partner and joint head of employment and discrimination Emma Satyamurti said: “The latest judgment represents a critical step forward in the journey toward pay equality for Morrisons shop workers.
“It underscores the commitment of our clients to having their contributions properly valued, particularly when compared to their counterparts in distribution roles.”
“Ensuring that the job descriptions are comprehensive and accurate is a pivotal part of the equal pay process. This will provide the independent experts with the tools they need to make a robust assessment of the roles, examining key factors such as responsibility, skill, and working conditions.”
This development comes as Morrisons’ equal pay case continues, building on a previous judgment from 2021, which ruled in favour of the claimants on the comparability of store and warehouse roles.
The grocer has previously argued that the tribunal should find that the retail staff could not be compared with the distribution centre workers because each Morrisons distribution centre had individual, collectively bargained terms and conditions.
It had argued that the employment terms of distribution centre workers were not common across all sites, so retail workers could not be compared with them as a group.
The case follows similar legal actions brought against other major UK retailers, including Asda, Co-op, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s, over pay disparities between male and female employees.
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