Responding to yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling that shop floor workers in ASDA can be compared to colleagues in distribution centres for the purposes of equal pay, GMB Scotland Organiser Robert Deavy said: “The ruling opens the door to equal pay justice for thousands of ASDA workers in Scotland and it’s a massive moment.
“ASDA has fought tooth and nail for years to deny shop floor workers, predominantly women, their proper value and this is now their fourth defeat in the courts.
“The need to accept they are wrong, that over 40,000 claimants across the UK are right, and now sit down with GMB to start a process of settling the liability for their discrimination.
“It should also be a moment to reset ASDA’s historical approach to industrial relations and move towards full collective bargaining for its employees.
“Lessons need to be learned and resistance has got ASDA nowhere. After everything these workers have given this business over the last year, their voices must be heard.”
The story is unlikely to end here, however.
An Asda spokesperson said: “This ruling relates to one stage of a complex case that is likely to take several years to reach a conclusion. We are defending these claims because the pay in our stores and distribution centres is the same for colleagues doing the same jobs regardless of their gender.
“Retail and distribution are very different sectors with their own distinct skill sets and pay rates. Asda has always paid colleagues the market rate in these sectors and we remain confident in our case.”
The company stresses that yesterday’s ruling only relates to Stage One of the Equal Value process and is not the conclusion of the case.
The second stage of the process will now consider whether store and distribution roles are of ‘equal value’. This could potentially be followed by a third stage in the process that would consider if there are any factors other than gender why the roles should not be paid equally.