RETAILER Next faces an estimated £30 million equal pay bill after an employment tribunal ruled it had indirectly sexually discriminated against sales consultants by paying them lower hourly rates than their warehouse workers.

The fashion retailer must now compensate more than 3,500 current and former store staff, who are overwhelmingly female, for up to six years of lost earnings which averaged at more than £6,000 per year each.

Representing the claimants, Leigh Day said the landmark decision will be a “huge encouragement” to more than 112,000 store staff bringing similar equal pay claims against supermarkets Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and the Co-op. 

It estimated that Next faced paying more than £30m in compensation after paying sales consultants up to £3 less per hour than mostly male warehouse workers.

Leigh Day said the number of workers entitled to compensation will “increase significantly” above the original 3,500 claimants in the months following the successful ruling. 

The store staff’s basic hourly pay terms will automatically be equalised in their existing contracts, along with paid rest breaks, and equal Sunday, night and overtime premiums in line with comparable terms in the warehouse contracts. 

One of the three lead claimants, Helen Scarsbrook, 68, from Eastleigh, Hants, has worked for Next for more than 20 years.

She said: “It has been a long six years battling for the equal pay we all felt we rightly deserved, but today we can say we won.

“Anyone who works in retail knows that it is a physically and emotionally tough job. Customer service, in particular, is very demanding and we do that in addition to lots of other essential tasks that go to make Next a successful business.”

Leigh Day barrister Elizabeth George said: “When you have female-dominated jobs being paid less than male-dominated jobs and the work is equal, employers cannot pay women less simply by pointing to the market and saying ‘it’s the going rate for the jobs’.”  

“The employment tribunal has confirmed employers must go further to justify paying the different rates.

“It is worth reminding people that the financial compensation they will now be entitled to is not a windfall.  

“It is pay that they were always entitled to if Next had complied with its equal pay obligations.”

Next has been contacted for comment.