 M & S Give whistleblower the sack
A Marks & Spencer employee who blew the whistle on the retail giant's proposals to shrink its redundancy package has been sacked.
The man faced a three-hour disciplinary hearing on Monday and was told to return today to hear the outcome.
The GMB union, which represented the worker, said he was told he was being dismissed for "gross misconduct".
A spokesman for M&S confirmed the man had been dismissed.
The employee, based at the firm's London head office, sparked fears of imminent job losses when he contacted the media over proposals to reduce payouts by up to 25%.
Maria Ludkin, the GMB's legal officer, said: "The disappointing part of today's decision is that M&S head of global HR, John Wareham, stated that the 25-year long service of this employee is totally irrelevant to the decision to sack him.
"M&S have shown that they are more concerned about maintaining a repressive regime for their staff than about promoting open discussion about the direction of the company and the way that the staff are treated."
But the company spokesman said the retailer did not regard the case as "whistleblowing" because it did not believe it was doing anything wrong.
"(The former employee) broke the company's rules and regulations and deliberately leaked internal company information and made derogatory and speculative comments to the media, despite a variety of internal routes available to address any concerns," he said.
The spokesman added that M&S could not be confident that the worker would not repeat his actions if he remained in the job.
The firm changed its original proposals following consultations with staff but has still reduced redundancy payouts.
An employee will now receive a maximum of 62 weeks' pay rather than the previous 70, although this is more than the original proposal of 52 weeks.
Source: Sky News
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