M&S fires whistle-blower in redundancy pay row

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Unions said the decision had sent morale at the company's Paddington Basin headquarters to rock bottom and accused the firm, led by chief executive Stuart Rose, of being "corporate thugs".
The middle-level manager at headquarters went public with plans by M&S to reduce redundancy settlements.

Union officials said he raised his concerns with the company's internal consultation groups, known as Business Involvement Groups, but was ignored. Following this, he took his concerns to the press.
M&S immediately launched an investigation into the leak and discovered a phone and email trail that led to the employee, said to be a married 44-year-old Londoner with two school-aged children.
He was sacked for gross misconduct and given just £800 holiday pay at a disciplinary hearing this afternoon, having committed an act of "embarrassing" the company, a sackable offence in the M&S staff handbook.

Maria Ludkin, the GMB legal officer who represented him, said: "What really disappointed us was that M&S head of global HR, John Wareham, said, and I quote: "I have considered your 25 years' unblemished service and I decided they were irrelevant."

An M&S spokesman said: "This is about an individual who has broken the rules and made derogatory statements to the press. It is about the fact that we have lost confidence in this individual."

The case was being closely watched by employers and lawyers as M&S would be pilloried for sacking the worker but run the risk of sending the message that it was acceptable to attack the company in the press if it gave him a pardon.
M&S claimed it had revised the redundancy plans before the leak appeared in the press.