From time to time I shop in Tesco’s various stores around Bedford. Invariably I check out my own shopping, it saves time, and I required no training for the task. I spent many years as an executive in the logistics sector, and the idea that the work of a checkout person is equivalent to that of a warehouse worker is nonsense on stilts. If women want to be paid the same as warehouse workers, they should become warehouse workers, and face all the things that make working in warehouses a less attractive job, including unsocial hours, and the need to operate expensive equipment competently and safely. A piece by Robert Miller in today’s Times, emphases ours:
Tesco is facing a demand for up to £4 billion in back pay from thousands of mostly female shop floor staff in what could become Britain’s largest claim for equal pay.
Leigh Day, a law firm, has launched a legal action on behalf of almost 100 shop assistants who say that they earn as much as £3 an hour less than male warehouse workers in similar roles. [J4MB: They’re not similar roles. If they were, more women would want to do them.]
Up to 200,000 shop floor staff could be affected by the claim, which could cost Tesco up to £20,000 per worker in back pay over at least six years.
Paula Lee, a Leigh Day lawyer who is representing the women, told The Guardian that the most common rate of pay for women was £8 an hour, while for men it could be as high as £11 an hour.
“We believe an inherent bias has allowed store workers to be underpaid over many years,” she said. “There might be lifting and carrying in the distribution centre but there is also lifting and carrying in shops as well as dealing with customers asking questions and handling money.” [J4MB: The ‘lifting and carrying’ in shops will be much less than in warehouses. As for ‘customers asking questions and handling money’, well, that requires high-level skills, doesn’t it? These women must be paid the same as warehouse workers, because vagina.]
The first claims are being submitted through Acas, the conciliation service, before proceeding to employment tribunal. Similar actions against Asda and Sainsbury’s are in the employment tribunal process.
A Tesco spokesman said: “We are unable to comment on a claim that we have not received. We work hard to make sure all our colleagues are paid fairly and equally for the jobs they do.”
Among the insightful comments, some from ‘Nikki’:
Male and female workers that are shop assistants are paid the same.
Male and female workers that work in the warehouse are paid the same.
Logic conclusion: shop assistant role is paid less than warehouse worker.
Post modernist conclusion: because there are more female shopping assistants and there are more male warehouse workers it is a sexism plot to pay men more.
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Justice for Men & Boys 
Earlier in my life I was often driven through the streets of England’s towns and cities in large, prestigious cars, and sometimes I waved, discreetly, at the poor pedestrians. I demand back-pay to bring my remuneration up to the same level as Her Majesty the Queen receives for what is, one might argue (in the feminist sense), the same role.
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I’ll make a point of using the self-service check-out every time, from now on. Every little helps.
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“Post modernist conclusion: because there are more female shopping assistants and there are more male warehouse workers it is a sexism plot to pay men more.”
Yes its a neat trick to get a bit of “collective bargaining” for more money dressed up as some crusade. Rather like the BBC “gals” weeping about their £100k+ salaries then being mighty p….d off when a load of men got a rise too.
One presumes that if successful it may force the big supermarkets to introduce much more self service tills etc. and to insist their staff “multi task” as I see the in the staff in Aldi and Lidl ,where there is far less sitting at tills and chatting a la Tesco. It is an unscientific measure I know but there appear far greater proportion of males at work in Lidl and Aldi maybe because the job is known to be harder than the ones in the bigger supermarkets.
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I use the local ASDA quite a bit because the shop is open all hours and that suits my present circumstances. One thing I’m struck by when shopping at late late hours is that those women who are supposed to be stacking shelves are usually standing in partially concealed pairs, holding some product, presumably to give the appearance of being ‘busy’, and gossiping. I do see the occasional lone female working; however, the work is almost always being done by the men. Even when they have the same position as men with the same rate of pay, women rarely do the same actual work.
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the sooner robots can replace female workers, the better for everyone…
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I was under the impression the bots were here already — fembots — and that the boffins were working on a new generation that can operate with women-mimic software. The trouble is they won’t want to go anywhere near a workplace and will insist on lying down with their legs open chanting ‘there’s no charge: the sex is free’. [My order’s in for the design featuring realistic plumbing but non-realistic psychology.]
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Hahaaaa ! female robots with more logical software…sounds like a great idea !
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Exactly my thoughts, Mike.
The ‘equal worth’ legislation has been used to do anything but properly compare jobs to find those which indeed equate. The classic example is the ruse of deeming part-time dinner ladies with full-time bin-men; that is, a cushy, indoor job for which they is an endless supply of applicants given for women it’s little different to being at home and fits with kids/school, versus and outdoor, dirty, zero-status job that nobody applies except for the money.
If Tesco can’t find lawyers to easily shoot down the ridiculous claim, then we’ve got a good future line here in becoming advisers on how to defeat feminist bollocks!
Even so, if the courts accepted the crazy dinner ladies / bin-men claim, then it seems there is no sense in the judiciary to appeal to.
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A bare faced try-on, plain and simple.
All money has to come from somewhere, it doesn’t just ‘happen’.
When Tesco give in to blackmail (always a bad move) and put up their prices to pay for this scam, what proportion of those higher prices will come from women, and is this sham equality a zero sum gain?
Seems likely – and what do the shopfloor workers have say about that?
Their excuse could only amount to a mixture of greed and stupidity – nice one!
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