A British law firm said Feb. 7 that it has taken the first step in an equal pay claim against Tesco Plc, and estimated the move could cost the U.K. supermarket chain £4 billion to compensate workers.
In a statement posted on the website of Leigh Day, lawyers argued that workers at Tesco's distribution centers, who are predominantly male, were paid "considerably more" than workers in stores, who are predominantly female.
Distribution center workers could earn in excess of £11 per hour, while the most common pay grade for store workers was about £8 per hour, according to Leigh Day, which calculated that the disparity meant that full-time distribution center workers could earn more than £100 per week, or £5,000 per year, above store staff on the same hours.
The law firm, which specializes in areas such as employment and discrimination, said the underpayment of workers could apply to more than 200,000 Tesco employees, with estimated pay shortfalls as high as £20,000. The final bill for Tesco could be as much as £4 billion, it calculated.
"We believe an inherent bias has allowed store workers to be underpaid for many years," Paula Lee, a lawyer from Leigh Day's employment team, said in the statement.
Leigh Day, which has offices in London, Manchester and Liverpool, said it had been approached by more than 1,000 employees or former employees. The firm said it had embarked on the first stage of an employment tribunal by submitting claims on behalf of its clients through the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, which attempts to resolve workplace conflicts.
In a statement emailed to S&P Global Market Intelligence, a Tesco spokesperson said: "We are unable to comment on a claim that we have not received. Tesco has always been a place for people to get on in their career, regardless of their gender, background or education, and we work hard to make sure all our colleagues are paid fairly and equally for the jobs they do."
Tesco, the U.K. largest grocery retailer by revenue, said in a gender pay gap report published on its website that the median pay of male employees in the period from April 2015 to April 2016 was 8.6% more than the median pay of female employees, below the U.K. national average of 18.1%. It attributed the differential to more men placed in higher-paying roles or working more premium hours such as nights and public holidays.
"We still recognize there is more to do to close the gap," Tesco said in the report.
