After a six-year legal battle, thousands of current and former employees of the high street retailer Next have won a significant equal pay claim. The case, involving 3,540 claimants,

concluded with an employment tribunal ruling that Next had failed to prove that the lower basic wages paid to sales consultants, compared to warehouse operatives, were not due to sex discrimination.

The tribunal examined the period between 2012 and 2023, during which 77.5% of retail consultants at Next were female, while 52.75% of warehouse operators were male. According to equal pay laws, employees performing work of equal value at the same company must be paid equally unless the employer can show that the wage difference is due to a "material factor" unrelated to sex discrimination.

Next argued that the pay difference was based on the "market rate" for each role and was necessary to maintain the "viability" of the business. While the tribunal acknowledged that the pay disparity was not due to "direct discrimination" or any "conscious or subconscious influence of gender" on pay decisions, it determined that the company's business justification was not strong enough to outweigh the discriminatory effect of lower pay for sales consultants.

The tribunal ruled that there must typically be a more compelling business reason to justify such wage disparities. Next has announced its intention to appeal the ruling.

This case marks the first successful equal pay claim of its kind against a national retailer, according to Leigh Day, the law firm representing the claimants.

Helen Scarsbrook, 68, from Eastleigh near Southampton, who has worked for Next for over 20 years and was one of the three lead claimants, spoke about the challenges faced by sales consultants. "Customer service is demanding and often undervalued," she said in a statement issued through Leigh Day. "It has been a long six years battling for the equal pay we all felt we rightly deserved, but today we can say we won. Anyone who works in retail knows that it is a physically and emotionally tough job." Photo by Dorsetdude, Wikimedia commons.