Brickbat: Equal Pay for Unequal Work

An employment tribunal in the United Kingdom has ruled that the Next clothing chain should not pay its retail workers, who are mostly female, less than its predominantly-male warehouse workers. This opens the door to store workers receiving more than £30 million ($39.43 million) in back pay. Next's lawyers noted that pay for warehouse workers is greater than for retail workers in the economy as a whole. But the tribunal said that did not justify the company paying different rates. It acknowledged that the pay difference was not due to any "direct discrimination" or even to the "conscious or subconscious influence of gender." But it said that the company's "business need was not sufficiently great as to overcome the discriminatory effect of lower basic pay."

Comments

[Don't look at me!]

In the future, everyone will make $15 / hour.

[Fist of Etiquette]

BREAKING NEWS: Tribunal Puts Retail Chain Out Of Business For Equity

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Breadlines are a good thing, or something.

[Longtobefree]

Yeah. Because all the warehouse workers demanded transfers to the retail stores!

[B G]

The company should have the retail and warehouse workers alternate jobs every 2-4 weeks. If there are more retail staff than warehouse staff, start closing stores until the headcounts even out.

See if that tribunal can rationalize against the company demanding equal work from employees they're required to compensate with equal pay.

[Winston in Wonderland]

My daughter quit her job as a sales clerk at a big box store because they wanted her to work in the warehouse a couple of hours each day. She complained that warehouse work was hot, backbreaking work.

Clearly, at least one sales clerk believed that the two jobs were pretty different.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

I hope you disowned the bigoted brat.

[Chipper Chunked Chile Con Congress (ex NCW)]

I was going to say, easy enough. Just tell the ladies that they're going to be taking turns with the lads in the warehouse.

[B G]

Petition the FAA for "Equity in Air Travel"

On any commercial flight landing or originating in any airport in the USA, every person aboard the aircraft should be allowed an equal turn at the controls, and performing the role of cabin crew. Why should only people who've had the time and money to complete the process of obtaining a pilot's license and log enough flight hours to qualify for multi-engine and higher levels of training/licensing have the privilege of getting to single-handedly control where the plane goes and how it gets there?

After that, Equity in Medical Care: Why should only people who were able to get into and complete medical school plus multiple additional years of training be allowed to perform organ transplants (and get highly paid while doing so)? Give everyone who happens to be in the hospital that day an equal chance at scrubbing in on whatever is happening in the OR. Who's to say that someone being treated for TB couldn't pull off a flawless appendectomy, or that someone who's detoxing from heroin isn't fit to do a triple bypass?

It's all about equality of results, after all....

[JenK]

Well that seems…insane.

[Strider]

The bureaucracy will decide what "equal pay for equal work" means. You peons just do what you're told.

[diver64]

So I guess the Tribunal is saying all jobs are equal and everyone should be paid the same? Let's see the massive influx of women pouring foundations and the men taking their jobs as barista's. We will see how long that fairy tale lasts