Next wins tribunal appeal against staff over equal pay

(Alliance News) - Next PLC on Monday announced it won an appeal in its ongoing litigation raised by current and former staff regarding equal pay, overturning a 2024 ruling.

The Leicester-based clothing and homeware retailer said an employment tribunal endorsed its position that it should not have to pay shop assistants and warehouse operatives the same amount of basic pay.

Over 3,500 current and former workers originally claimed that it was discriminatory for Next to pay less to shop staff, who are predominantly women, than employees in warehouses, where just over half the staff are male.

Next said on Monday that the tribunal did not find gender was a discriminating factor. The company argued that higher pay was necessary to recruit and retain workers in warehouses, which was not the case for store employees.

Next added: "Had the judgement gone against Next, it would have created a threat to the ongoing viability of many of our stores. It would also have had the perverse effect of putting retailers who operate their own warehousing at a material disadvantage to competitors who contract out their warehouse operations, which makes no sense."

In 2024, the tribunal had accepted that differences in pay rates were not due to direct discrimination but that business need was not sufficiently great as to overcome the discriminatory effect of lower basic pay, the BBC reported at the time.

Next shares were up 0.6% at 15,430.00 pence on Monday around noon in London.

By Camilla Borri, Alliance News reporter

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