Retail workers at supermarket giant Asda are owed more than £2bn in back pay, according to the GMB Union.
The claim comes as 159 MPs wrote to bosses at the Leeds-headquartered company calling for an end to “pay discrimination” of its supermarket workers.
The politicians have also called on TDR Capital, which is about to become the majority owner in Asda, to settle a legal battle which has seen tens of thousands of supermarket workers bring their equal pay case to the Employment Tribunal.
The letter from the group of MPs argues that “women workers on the shop floor earn up to £3.74 per hour less than their male counterparts in warehouses”.
At least 60,000 predominantly female Asda supermarket workers have been locked in a 12 year legal tussle to be paid the same as the predominantly male warehouse workers.
The second stage of the hearing is currently being heard in the Manchester Employment Tribunal.
‘It’s time Asda workers are paid properly’
Nadine Houghton, GMB national officer, said: “GMB members working in Asda stores will be delighted to know that politicians support their cause.
“Low paid women workers have propped up the profits of retail giants for too long, its time they are paid properly for the valuable work they do.
“The courts and now politicians are waking up to the scale of discrimination faced by women retail workers and now Asda’s owners have a chance to do the right thing and pay them what they are owed.”
The letter comes a week after Asda announced that Mohsin Issa will step away from his executive leadership role to focus on his position as sole chief executive of petrol forecourts business, EG Group.
Lord Stuart Rose will assume Mohsin’s responsibilities alongside TDR Capital partner Rob Hattrell, the grocer said, while Mohsin Issa will remain a co-owner of Asda and non-executive on the board.
Asda will continue its three-year search for a chief executive “to lead the business in the next phase of its strategy” and said it will update the market “in due course”.