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

[LovelyBitOfHam]

Inspired by this article regarding Next workers, similar to previous cases with supermarkets.

AIBU to think these are very different roles, and it’s fair to pay warehouse workers a higher wage?

I have worked retail before and didn’t love it, but I don’t think I would ever accept a job in a warehouse.

I’m also very aware that working in a store in a shopping mall or city centre is far easier to get to than an out of town warehouse on an industrial estate, and pay should reflect this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0817jd9dqo

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Definitely not as a farmer worker

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

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.

@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.

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.

@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.

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

They are different jobs but difficult in different ways. Warehouse workers do not deal with abusive or violent customers for a start.

Different jobs is not relevant. Its value of the job to the company that matters. It’s how the value of the contribution is calculated that matters. In many organisations, all departments have to work together. Sales people cannot sell anything if doesn’t arrive in store. The warehouse does nothing if the goods aren’t imported or purchased. So everything and every job is linked. The skill and fairness is recognising which cogs have a higher value than others. Some are, inevitably the same and salary should reflect this.

Years ago I worked in a boots store. I made friends with someone who worked in one of their warehouses. It didn’t bother me much that she had a higher hourly rate (although we were both same age, unskilled, working part-time while at uni) but it really irritated me that she had better terms and conditions- unsocial hours payments for Saturdays and double time on Sundays, whereas in the shops we only got straight time on Saturdays and 1.5 on Sundays.

The precedent was set decades ago as @TizerorFizz explains - it’s hardly new!

With these type of jobs this would often be the base salary before overtime etc. Glassdoor says £32,998. Totaljobs says £32,500. Gov.uk says £34k for an experienced driver.

But as with everything it varies between companies. I earn around £50k driving trucks in the construction sector. My mate earns around £65k driving fuel tankers, and many pallet companies are still paying £30-35k.

I've no doubt bus drivers get killed at work but it's not in the top 10 most dangerous jobs as waste operatives consistently are - with companies like Biffa you're both a loader and driver as most working on the trade waste work as a one man team.

It's shocking really - how long ago was this?

I had similar experience working for BT in the nineties, telephone engineers, 99% male, were paid a lot more than clerical staff, 99% female, but entry requirements /qualifications to do the clerical roles was higher-5 GCSE/ O levels for office workers but just 2 GCSEs / O levels for the engineers. ( you'd probably need a degree to do either job now!)

I'm pleased it's now changing and employers are being pulled up on it as female dominated roles are often undervalued and underpaid and it's been going on too long

Both jobs require the same level of skill (albeit different skills) so should have parallel pay scales.

The idea that a job that requires more brute strength should be paid more is simply valuing traditionally male jobs over traditionally female jobs.

ill admit at present i love the warehouse but currently being made redundant, i can agree with equal pay because different roles different skills but different stresses etc, personally i love the warehouse (at least the warehouse role i currently do)