To think warehouse workers and shop assistants have very different jobs?

I have worked in a supermarket for 14 years,i was one of a handful that didnt sign up for the claim at first as i did feel at the time the warehouse staff did have a more physical job same as the staff who restock the shelves who i felt should get the same as the warehouse ,i have now signed up due to the fact that due to lack of staff we are expected to work any where doing anything ,however i do think if we are awarded it ,it will be the final nail in the coffin for the place i work

@WotsYourExcuse

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-68246140

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-66454618

https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/what-london-assembly-does/questions-mayor/find-an-answer/bus-driver-assaults

The average bus drivers salary in my City is £23,300. It is much higher in London.

Most bus drivers are behind a reinforced safety window and don't come out to intervene in passenger misconduct.

According to Glassdoor, average salary is £32k which sounds about proportionate compared to the aforementioned Biffa drivers who do a lot more manual handling (pushing bins weighing hundreds of kg on their own) having to get out the cab and retrieve bins from alleys full of drug addicts/alcoholics, and manoeuvring around high footfall pedestrianised/shopping areas in ways that bus drivers don't (e.g. bus drivers aren't allowed to reverse when outside of the depot).

A waste operative is the 2nd most dangerous job in the UK according to Indeed, whilst a bus driver isn't in the top 10. Forklift operators are in 3rd place.

Biffa drivers working the evening shift are on around £18.50 p/h at my local depot (£2 p/h shift allowance for working evenings). The guys doing lots of overtime are making around £50k.

@Chester23 The law is about the value of the job to the company. It’s not about direct comparison. This has been the case since the Ford car seat women win their case in the late 60s that drove the legislation.

I've worked in a warehouse. A steel.manufacturrers warehouse..

I've.worked.at.Asda on the shop floor.

Warehouse - easy, but a lot of walking about. Get this, put that here, move this here, count that, grab these, load that lorry, unload that lorry, weigh this, check that etc.

Shop floor - I'd rather hammer nails into my flappy bits than do that shit again. You've got to do all the warehouse shite, but, there's cuntstomers to deal with as well. Fuck that.

I would argue the customer facing staff is the more difficult job, warehouse seems easier to me.

Definitely not as a farmer worker

According to Google, farming has the second highest level of work casualties, it’s not a well paid job.

Farm workers don’t earn much, physically demanding, use similar machinery, out in all weather.

For me, these types of things don't make sense. I'm with you, different jobs. They should just be asking for more money not comparing with a different job in the same company. And it annoys me that they use the most employees are women were as in the factory most are male. This isnt discrimination as long as the same jobs are paid the same.
I have worked in factories and have no idea what people in the showrooms/offices get paid. I got paid for my job and thats it.

I've worked retail for years and started off at the bottom and worked my way up. You couldn't pay me to work in DC, we went to one of our biggest ones as part of management training and it looked like hell on earth. Even though customers are hard work I still would rather the shop floor than DC.

In Next and most large supermarkets Shop Assistants do work at least sometimes in a warehouse. The difference is that warehouse ops usually start as temps and when hired as perms they need higher salaries

Exactly. A friend of mine worked for Next some years ago.

Working the Boxing Day sale was compulsory for just about everyone. The shift started at 4 am.

Most of the job was controlling the marauding hordes literally fighting over stock.

Yes of course, that principle has already been tested in court several times. The jobs don't have to be identical to attract equal pay.
The jobs are different but demand equal levels of skill.
Personally I would have thought the front facing retail work demanded more from staff than a warehouse job certainty nor less.

At the shop I worked in the some people started at 6am and some worked to 10pm. Occasionally people worked beyond these hours. Nobody could book holiday in December or January and bank holidays were worked. The shop only closed on Easter and Christmas day. Staff had to deal with lorries making deliveries and heavy goods.

Pay is generally determined by market forces. Warehouse jobs pay more than shop work. Why do you think that is? Why don’t all the people working in shops apply for the better paid warehouse roles? Especially given warehouse roles are typically full time and people in shops are often on short contracts?

if it’s no more physically demanding, no more challenging an environment, no more difficult to get to, why on Earth are employers paying a premium, why are there still so many vacancies and high turnover, and why don’t all the millions of shop workers give themselves an instant pay rise and increase in hours by working there?

mysterious.

If that was true bus drivers would be paid much more. Assaults are common.

Retail you need to be well-presented, able to talk to people, handle cash, process card transactions, process refunds, handle complaints, keep an eye out for shoplifters… much more demanding than warehouse work, I would have thought. When I worked in a shop (long time ago) we had to have all the warehousing skills as well because we were receiving stock into the storeroom, restocking etc on top of the front of house stuff.

It does go up with skills as well though, and being trusted with money.

I would have thought forklift operators and the like are paid more, this is about the entry level staff I think? Sorry haven't had a chance to read about it.

Pay usually goes up with the risk of personal danger/injury. Hence why the drivers at Biffa etc are on £45k+.

I've done both shop floor and retail work. They were... different. I'm not sure which was harder. Although I don't recall being paid extra when I was sent from a store to go and work at a warehouse. Where's my cash! I'm already mildly resentful of the fact I should have been able to claim travel and lunch, but no one told me.

I'd find dealing with the public more stressful but warehouse work is much more dangerous. Being around reversing trucks, fork lifts, boxes stacked really high on racks, etc.

I remember going to an Aldi (or was it Lidl) depot and they were whizzing around on electric ride on pump trucks. I remember thinking it wouldn't be fun to get rammed by one of them!

I’ve worked on the shop floor and in a warehouse and the warehouse is significantly harder work. I’m a woman and don’t see why Next shouldn’t be able to pay a premium for the harder jobs. That’s literally just market forces in action. This isn’t about equal pay for equal work because it’s not equal work. Working in a warehouse is harder.

That's awful.

But then childcare workers are treated terribly by society in general.

I don't think I would be worrying about Next's net worth, profits, shareholders or its CEO Lord Wolfson, I'm sure they will be fine. Not really comparable to Birmingham Council