Next wins key appeal to overturn £30m equal pay ruling
A judge ruled Next can pay warehouse workers more because it is harder to recruit and retain them.
Next has won an appeal allowing it to keep paying warehouse workers a higher hourly rate than shop floor staff in a long running battle over equal pay.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has overturned a key part of a landmark ruling in 2024 which found the retailer was wrong to pay its warehouse staff higher basic pay than shop floor workers for jobs of equal value.
More than 3,500 current and former employees, mainly women, had been set to share potentially more than £30m in back pay as a result of that judgement.
In a statement, it said: "The importance of this decision is that the Appeal Tribunal has confirmed that it was justifiable for Next to rely on market forces to distinguish between different groups of employees, where there was a good rationale to pay one group more than the other.