Legal
Court case is a warning to firms over equality
Clarke Willmott partner Kate Gardner looks at the Tesco equal pay claim issue and what it could mean for employers...
The news that Tesco may have to pay compensation for failure to provide equal pay for women employed in their stores has caused great concern for employers across the UK. Since the introduction of the
Equality Act in 2010 and the subsequent requirement of gender pay cap reporting, substantial claims have been brought against several large employers in this country, including another supermarket chain, Asda. In the Tesco case, the checkout
workers are arguing that their job is of equal value to that of the men who have previously claimed they work harder in the warehouses. These women claim that they deal with customers and that is equally demanding mentally and comparable to the physical hard work of handling and loading stock. The Equality Act seeks to define
work of equal value. The Tesco workers argue that the only reason
Sector Focus
PwC reports high levels of activity
PwC in the Midlands enjoyed a buoyant period of deal activity during 2017, despite what it calls ‘a headwind of political and economic uncertainty’. The firm’s Midlands deals team
has seen healthy activity, with around 40 deals completing with a combined value of £5bn. Although these deals have been
across a range of industries in the region, the majority of transactions have been in the industrial products and retail, consumer and leisure sectors, reflecting the in- depth cross sector experience of the team. PwC has advised on some of the
Kate Gardner: Fair day’s work should lead to a fair day’s pay
for the pay difference remains a gender issue, and the women have always been paid less than the men. My view is that this is the time to
carry out a stringent job evaluation study in your business. You can no longer rely upon a defence that your workers may be carrying out different roles if there is a bias in one area of your business for women to carry out a particular job.
Since April 2017, all businesses
with more that 250 employees have been required to publish their gender pay gap reports. In time it is proposed that all employers will be required to prepare gender pay reports. So the message is clear from this
Tesco case: all employers need to consider their work force and their pay arrangements.
region’s major transactions, ending the year on a high with the sale of Riviera Travel by Phoenix to Silverfleet Capital and Forest Holidays, which was backed by LDC, to Phoenix. Matt Waddell, the firm’s Midlands
corporate finance partner, said: “This is testament to the Midlands’ strong businesses, brands and local economy, which position the region to offer a healthy foundation for deal activity. Despite some of the economic challenges faced in 2017, Private Equity continued to provide a solid base for doing deals in the Midlands.”
Preparing the route is the first step
LM is helping to deliver part of HS2 – the UK’s new high speed railway.
To find out more, visit our website:
www.lm-jv.com March 2018 CHAMBERLINK 59
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