M&S whistleblower sacked
A Marks and Spencer employee who disclosed the company’s plans to reduce redundancy terms was dismissed yesterday following a disciplinary hearing.
The worker discosed plans to cut redundancy pay for the firm’s 70,000 staff when he was based at M&S’ head office in London. After passing on the plans to reduce payments by up to 25 per cent to the media, the worker was immediately suspended until this week’s disciplinary hearing. “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,” said Maria Ludkin, GMB legal officer.
“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.
“Make no mistake, this is a gross act of corporate bullying.”
An M&S spokesperson said the employee had made derogatory and speculative comments to the media.
