Shop staffs' claims go to Europe

The Court of Appeal has referred the Woolworths and Ethel Austin case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Two years ago, the shopworkers’ union Usdaw won compensation worth tens of millions of pounds for 25,000 former employees of both companies. However, around 1,200 former employees of Ethel Austin and 3,200 former employees of Woolworths were denied compensation because they worked in stores with fewer than 20 staff.

The decision to deny compensation to staff who worked in smaller shops was based on the interpretation of UK law. It was greeted with outrage by former employees, customers, politicians and sections of the media.

Usdaw fought the injustice of this decision and, in May last year, won a landmark legal case at the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) that should have seen those excluded staff included in the compensation scheme.

The ruling not only meant that those excluded staff at Woolworths and Ethel Austin would have been entitled to the compensation received by employees from bigger stores, but that the law would be changed permanently in the same circumstances for all future workers from small organisations.

Despite the government’s failure to attend the EAT hearing, they sought leave to appeal the decision, which was granted on 10 September 2013.

www.usdaw.org.uk/newsevents/news/2014/jan/usdawpleasedthatthewoolies.aspx