M&S whistleblower claims calls were monitored
The employee sacked by Marks & Spencer after revealing plans to cut redundancy payments has accused the company of operating in a ‘climate of fear’ by monitoring private phone calls and emails.
The employee, Tony Goode, claimed that his own personal mobile conversations must have been monitored in order for the company to collect the information it needed to sack him.
The allegations were denied by M&S as “fanciful and utter nonsense”.
The GMB union has raised questions about the level of surveillance conducted by M&S against its staff.
Legal officer Maria Ludkin said it had emerged that the company monitored every single keystroke made by staff on computers and kept the information for six years. She also claimed that supposedly anonymous replies to staff surveys were tracked.
A company spokeswoman said: “We could not possibly monitor his personal phone calls and we are not able to trace individuals taking part in staff surveys because they have to be anonymous to get the truest result.”
Goode also claimed that M&S kept data on its store card customers dating back to 1986. The spokeswoman said the company did keep data on customers but could not say how far back records were kept.
At the time of Goode’s dismissal the GMB said ‘Make no mistake this is a gross act of corporate bullying. GMB will be appealing against this decision in the internal procedures and will launch a public campaign to secure justice for this M&S worker inside and outside the company.’
