"Tesco workers take company to court over alleged discrimination", 16 Oct 2016

Tesco workers are taking legal action against their employer on grounds of age and gender discrimination after the supermarket cut its pay rates for night and weekend shifts.  A group of 17 long-serving employees, who joined Tesco before 1999, are fighting the cut in wages...Tesco announced the changes in February and they had been agreed in consultation with the shopworkers’ trade union...Leigh Day, the legal firm acting for the claimants, has written to Tesco asking them how many of Tesco’s staff who are paid by the hour – who are mostly over 40 years old – are affected.  All staff taken on before 5 July 1999 have seen their benefits reduced...“The decision to impose pay cuts on long-serving employees is a bitter pill for our clients to swallow and we believe it is discriminatory.  There seems to be a growing trend amongst retailers to cut staff wages and use those savings across other areas of the business.  “It is the longer-serving staff in these retail organisations who usually suffer..."...A similar dispute is simmering at Marks & Spencer, which reduced the earnings of about 10% of its shop-floor workers by cutting premium payments for those working antisocial hours in July.  Leigh Day said it is also representing thousands of employees in discrimination claims against Asda and Sainsbury’s...