Ms K Element & others v Tesco Stores Ltd — 2023

The claimants worked in the respondent's retail stores and claimed equal pay on the basis that their work was of equal value to comparators working in the respondent's distribution centres. This judgment concerned the first stage 2 hearing under the Employment Tribunals (Equal Value) Rules of Procedure 2013, involving selected sample claimants and comparators.

The tribunal concluded that the parties had prepared and presented the evidence and submissions on an incorrect footing. It found that training documents and related materials showing what the respondent required job holders to do should have been at least the primary focus of the inquiry, and that oral evidence was needed only where a claimant or comparator did an aspect of the job differently from what those materials showed.

The tribunal decided that it was not just to determine the factual disputes as they stood at the end of the hearing. It ordered further search and disclosure of relevant training documents and required new job descriptions, agreed factual statements, and statements of disputed factual issues before the stage 2 process continued.