WHAT'S A "STAGE 2 HEARING"?

A “Stage 2” hearing is due to take place between March and May 2023 Watford Employment Tribunal in the Tesco equal pay claim. It concerns the claims of 6 sample claimants (i.e., test claimants), who hold or held three of the most common jobs in Tesco stores: replenishment, express, and nights customer assistants. They compare themselves with all of Tesco’s warehouse operatives, but the test cases centre on the work of 8 warehouse operatives who work at Didcot, Hinckley, Thurrock and Magor distribution centres. The warehouse operatives carried out various functions including dealing with goods coming into the distribution centres, picking the goods into cages, and loading cages of goods into lorries bound for stores.

The Tribunal will eventually decide whether the claimant and warehouse operative jobs are of equal value. But often (as happened here) there is a difference of opinion between the claimants and the employer-respondent about what the relevant jobs entailed. The purpose of this hearing is to determine various facts about the claimants’ and comparators’ work.

Tesco has prepared “job descriptions” for the comparators. We have prepared “job descriptions” for the sample claimants. Each party raised objections to the other’s drafting (asserting, for example, that the draft exaggerated the responsibilities of the role, or that the other party had included facts that were irrelevant). The outcome of the hearing will be a decision about what should be included in the job descriptions.

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