Supreme Court Blocks Tesco's Appeal, Clearing Path to Trial in £4bn Retail Equal Pay Litigation

The Supreme Court has refused Tesco's application to appeal a key procedural ruling in one of the most significant equal pay cases in UK employment law history, meaning the litigation will now proceed to trial. The case, launched in 2018 and brought by claimant firms Leigh Day and Harcus Parker, represents over 16,000 shop floor workers, predominantly women, who allege they are paid less than distribution centre workers, who are mostly men. The central dispute concerns the Employment Tribunal's decision to use generic training documents, rather than individual daily duties, to define the nature of 'work' for comparative purposes. Tesco challenged this methodology successively through the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, both of which partially allowed its appeals but refused to overturn the Tribunal's overall approach. The Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case brings Tesco's procedural challenge to a definitive end. Kiran Daurka, employment partner at Leigh Day, described the outcome as 'significant' for the 16,000 workers represented and confirmed the focus now shifts to the substantive trial. The litigation sits within a broader wave of retail equal pay claims, reportedly worth a potential £4bn in aggregate, involving Asda, Next, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, and the Co-Op. In a contrasting development last month, Next succeeded in an appeal at the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which overturned a 2024 Employment Tribunal ruling against it on the basis that recruitment and retention pressures justified the pay differential, saving Next from a reported £30m liability.