Next overturns court ruling which forced it to pay shop staff the same as  warehouse workers

Next hailed ‘a victory for common sense’ after it won an appeal against a court ruling which forced it to pay shop staff the same as warehouse workers under equal pay rules.

Store workers had taken legal action against the fashion chain for paying its retail sales staff, who are predominantly female, lower hourly wages than its warehouse workers, most of whom are male.

In 2024, a landmark court ruling found that Next was unable to prove that a lower basic wage paid to sales consultants was unrelated to sex discrimination.

But yesterday the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that it could pay warehouse staff higher wages than shop workers.

The judgment said this was justified because it costs more to recruit and retain warehouse workers due to higher pay rates in the wider market for these roles.

Next said there was no finding of direct sex discrimination.

The latest development in what has been an eight-year battle will have been monitored by grocers, including Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, which are dealing with similar claims.

Next, which has been run by Lord Wolfson since August 2001, said it believed the judgment ‘is not only correct in law, but also a victory for common sense’.

The retailer added that ‘recruitment and retention pressures’ applying to warehouse workers ‘did not apply to the workforce in its stores’.

Next said that if its appeal had been rejected by the tribunal, ‘it would have created a threat to the ongoing viability of many of our stores’.

The company operates around 458 shops in the UK and Ireland, which employ more than 20,000 workers.

An alternative decision would also have had the ‘perverse effect’ of penalising retailers who operate their own warehouses compared to those who contract out such operations, the retailer said.

A spokesman said: ‘This judgment has come at the right time, the UK economy desperately needs jobs and the loss of this appeal would have represented a hammer blow to retail employment in the UK.’

Elizabeth George, a partner at Leigh Day representing staff, called the latest ruling ‘disappointing’.

She said: ‘The market rate is higher in the predominantly male warehouse labour market, even though the work carried out in stores has already been found to be equal work.’