In Thandi v Next Retail Ltd (ET/1302019/2018) a group of retail workers has won a landmark equal pay case against high street fashion chain Next. The employment tribunal ruled that more than 3,500 sales consultants, mostly female, were right to claim that Next Retail Ltd had broken the law by paying them a lower basic wage than warehouse workers, who are predominantly men. The tribunal determined that sales consultancy and warehouse operations constitute equal work and should have been paid equally.
The claim is the first of a number of private sector retail equal pay cases to reach the final material factor defence stage and succeed.
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