I was sacked over gender pay row, says Co-op chief
Convenience store chain claims work performance was reason for dismissal
A FORMER HR director of the Co-op is suing the firm after she claims she was sacked for raising equal pay concerns.
Sam Walker brought claims of equal pay, discrimination and unfair dismissal at a tribunal being held in Manchester over the next two weeks.
Ms Walker was made chief officer for human resources in February 2014. A year later she raised equal pay questions after comparing her salary with those of male executives. Ms Walker, who was joined at her tribunal by Carrie Gracie, the BBC journalist, and Sam Smethers, the chief executive of the Fawcett Society, had a £425,000 salary that would have totalled more than £1 million once bonuses were included.
In a witness statement she said the Co-op had awarded board members large pay increases in 2014 to stop them leaving. Alistair Asher, general counsel, and Nick Folland, chief external affairs officer, were paid £550,000, while she and Paula Kerrigan, chief strategy officer, were awarded £400,000.
In 2016 Ms Walker said she warned Richard Pennycook, then chief executive, that “I thought the Co-op had an equal pay problem which not only exposed the business to legal claims, but was inconsistent with the Co-op’s declared values”.
She suggested taking more holiday to make her pro-rata pay equal. Instead she was offered a reduced role, she said.
During the negotiations her daughter suffered a brain injury and Ms Walker was signed off sick in March 2016. A month later she was informed her employment had been terminated. She claims she was “not treated equally in terms of pay with two male colleagues in the Co-op’s executive team and that I was victimised, discriminated against and ultimately dismissed when I raised concerns”.
In response, the Co-op vehemently denied the allegations, arguing that her dismissal was related to her work performance alone.
A Co-op spokesman said: “We do not accept that Sam Walker was discriminated against or treated detrimentally, and intend to fully and robustly defend the various claims brought.”
Andrew Burns QC, for the Co-op, suggested to Ms Walker that she was “thrown into the deep end” at a time when the business was struggling.
Ms Walker argued in her statement that the case was not about money but about “right and wrong”.
“I’ve grown up in a man’s world,” she said. “I’ve had a 28-year career with mainly just men around the table
‘I’ve had a 28-year career with mainly just men around the table’
once I reached senior positions and all the time I have been conscious that they have been paid more.
“I cannot leave that career, which I now accept is damaged beyond repair by simply making this claim, without trying to put something right. All the cases that come to court are class actions. The costs and the intimidation put individuals off. It is a living hell.”
Supporting her at the tribunal were Ms Gracie, who reportedly received about £280,000 in back pay after winning her gender pay battle against the BBC, and Ms Smethers, the head of the women’s equality charity to which Ms Gracie had donated her back pay.