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30th January 2025

Morrisons Shop Workers Progress With Equal Pay Claim

Morrisons Equal Pay Dispute

UK supermarket chain Morrisons is facing an equal pay claim involving over 7,500 of its shop workers. 

The Claimants, who are predominantly female, will have to argue that their roles are equal in terms of value to the work performed by the predominantly male, higher-paid employees in Morrisons’ distribution centres.

The Claimants have been successful in progressing their claim to the next stage following the conclusion of a ‘Stage 2 Equal Value Hearing’. During the hearing, the Employment Tribunal determined finalised job descriptions for female employees working in Morrisons stores, and a male employee working in a distribution centre. 

These job descriptions will be used by independent experts to evaluate factors like skill, effort and decision making. These factors will then be used to assess the overall ‘value’ of the work. 

For the work to be considered of equal value, as the Claimants are seeking to argue, their work does not need to be identical, or even equivalent, to the work performed by the distribution centre workers. Under the Equality Act 2010, for work to be considered ‘equal value’, it can be comparable in terms of effort, skill and responsibility.

The case follows on from a similar equal pay claim brought by shop workers against Asda in Asda Stores Ltd v Brierley [2021]. In this case, the Employment Tribunal established that shop workers could compare their roles to distribution centre workers, even if they worked from different locations and under different terms. 

Once the independent experts have evaluated the job descriptions finalised by the Tribunal, the Tribunal will determine whether the roles are of equal value. If they are deemed to be of equal value, Morrisons will need to demonstrate that there is another reason for the disparity in pay that is unrelated to the employee’s gender. If they cannot prove this, they could be liable to paying compensation in the form of backpay, as well as giving the shop workers a pay increase.

The case comes amidst a number of similar claims brought against prominent UK retailers, including Next, Asda, Tesco and Sainsburys. 

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