GMB North West and Irish Region Connect Magazine May 2018 | Page 10

ASDA Equal Pay Value Claim
Denise Walker
Denise Walker appointed as Senior Organiser
The GMB Trade
Union is working
with Solicitors from
law firm Leigh Day
to bring this
historic equal pay
case for GMB
members against
employer ASDA.
Congratulations to Denise Walker on her appointment as
Senior Organiser in GMB North West & Irish region. Denise was
appointed following interviews in Regional Office
recently and takes up her position with immediate effect.
Denise has been a Rep for many years and a GMB Officer
for the past six. Her area of responsibility will cover
Northern Ireland and ROI. We all wish Denise the best of luck
in her new role where, along with her colleagues, she will
continue to serve the interests of GMB members.
In October 2016 the claimants won the first part of their equal pay claim against
supermarket giant Asda – the tribunal concluded that workers in Asda’s shops, who are
mainly women, could compare themselves to male workers in Asda’s distribution centres.
Bob Welham Retires
Asda had argued that because different departments ran the shops and the distribution
centres, and as there were different methods for setting pay, that no comparison was
possible.
In the October judgment the employment tribunal dismissed Asda’s claims and agreed
with the claimants that both sets of workers were employed by Asda and that the pay
for all workers was controlled by Asda’s executive board, and overseen by their parent
company Wal-Mart.
Asda appealed the tribunal’s October decision on ten different grounds. All were
unsuccessful.
The Honourable Mr Justice Kerr concluded today that the employment tribunal had been
correct in saying that shop workers could compare to the distribution workers:
“I find no lack of rationality or perversity in the judge’s reasoning […] the judge’s overall
conclusion that the terms were common in the statutory sense is not impeachable.”
23 February 2018, saw GMB Convenor Bob Welham receive his final visitor to Crown Paints
Darwen site.
MEP Wajid Khan accepted the invitation to give Bob an opportunity to expand on his concerns
for UK Manufacturing that was suffering during the Brexit discussions. Bob informed Wajid he
wanted Labour to listen to the crippling costs of importing raw materials and the effect this was
having for the future security of UK Manufacturing jobs that were producing for the UK Market.
Chris Benson, Head of the Employment and Discrimination Department at Leigh Day,
said:
“Asda continues to appeal every point available to them, rather than focusing on paying
men in the distribution centres and women in the stores equally, but judges at every level
have been adamant that the claims can continue.“
“After yet another defeat, we hope that Asda take this opportunity to reflect on the merits
of the claims, and concentrate on why they pay men more than women for jobs of equal
value, rather than trying to stop the claims going ahead at all.”
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The visit was a great success and so after 48 years as a trade union activist and 29 as GMB
Steward and Convenor Bob talked of his pride in representing his members over those years
where his recruitment is at 98%, his members have received 24% pay awards over the last 8
years, his pride in chairing the EWC between 96-08 during which time Bob organised an EU
wide campaign that stopped the closures of many sites, his own included. He also secured
one of the best pension deals in the UK for the GMB Members at Crown Paints after the
business was sold by Akzo Nobel.
Bob retired on 02 February 2018; but will still be active for the GMB at
local, regional and national levels for some years to come.
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