In a ruling that will surely surprise no one who has ever worked a retail job, Next has won an appeal allowing it to keep paying warehouse workers a higher hourly rate than shop floor staff, overturning a key part of a landmark equal pay ruling from 2024.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal decided that Next was justified in paying warehouse staff more due to recruitment and retention pressures, effectively giving employers the green light to say, 'We had to pay them more to get them to stay, so that's fine.' This overturns the earlier finding that the retailer was wrong to pay warehouse staff higher basic pay 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 - money that now evaporates faster than a shop floor worker's patience during the Christmas rush. The law firm Leigh Day, which represents store workers, described the conclusion on basic pay as 'disappointing' and plans to appeal, presumably with a straight face.

Next called the decision a 'landmark victory' and a 'victory for common sense,' arguing that employers must be able to pay what's necessary to recruit the people they need without being obliged to raise pay for others 'where there is no reason to do so.' Apparently, 'because we can get away with it' counts as a reason in this context.

Leigh Day did note that judges upheld 2024 findings on night-time premiums, overtime premiums, and paid rest breaks, so it's not a total loss for the shop floor. Next said it will now seek permission to appeal those decisions - because why stop at winning when you can win more?

Both the original Employment Tribunal and the Appeal Tribunal found there was no direct sex discrimination in Next's pay rates. That's technically true - the discrimination is indirect, since shop floor staff are predominantly women while warehouse workers are predominantly male, but who's counting?

This ruling has the retail industry buzzing, with Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, and Sainsbury's all involved in similar long-running claims, now studying the findings with the intensity of a shopper eyeing a final clearance rack. Meanwhile, last year, thousands of female workers at Birmingham City Council heard how much they'll receive in their equal pay settlement, and Brighton and Hove City Council faces over 1,000 equal pay cases.

Next's boss also warns of a 'dramatic' fall in entry-level jobs, which is probably meant to distract from the fact that the jobs that remain might not pay equally.