Marks & Spencer sacks whistleblower

Marks & Spencer has sacked a whistleblower following disciplinary hearing

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Marks & Spencer has dismissed the so called "whistleblower" who revealed the retailer's plans to cut back redundancy payments, prompting the GMB union to launch a public campaign against the retailer.

The M&S worker is alleged to have leaked an email circulated to employees which outlined the retailer's plans to cut redundancy terms for more than 60,000 staff. The news prompted speculation that the retailer is planning a round of job cuts.

Maria Ludkin, the GMB Legal Officer who represented the former M&S employee at a disciplinary hearing 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."

She added: "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."

A spokeswoman for Marks & Spencer said: "I can confirm the individual has been dismissed. The individual broke company rules and regulations, they deliberately leaked confidential information and as a business we can't be confident that the individual won't disclose confidential information again. However, we don't belive the individual is a whistleblower because there has been no wrong doing by M&S, which is what the term implies."

The former M&S employee has five days to launch an appeal against.