Asda and the absurdity of ‘work of equal value’ 

At last, some news of an industry in Britain that is flourishing. Unfortunately, it is one that is helping to suppress growth in every other sector of the economy. I am sure that the lawyers who have brought a case involving 60,000 female workers at Asda think they have won a famous victory after an employment tribunal ruled that most of them were victims of sex discrimination for being paid up to £3.74 per hour less than the company’s warehouse staff. But all they have really achieved, other than lining their own pockets and those of their backers, is to impose vast bills on hard-pressed retailers which, in some cases, could lead to their extinction, destroying jobs along the way. The cost to Asda of the ruling has been put at £1.2 billion, but it is feared that such cases could cost the retail industry as a whole up to £8 billion.