We are astonished by the actions and allegations the GMB has made about the dismissal of one of our employees. Despite claims that they plan to appeal on behalf of the individual, the GMB seems more concerned about conducting the case through the media to gain publicity for their own ends. We would rather not debate an internal matter publicly prior to an appeal being heard but given the GMB’s continued pronouncements we feel compelled to emphasise the following points about this case:

· A very diligent and thorough process was followed before dismissing the employee concerned. This was not a decision we took lightly but we did so for the following reasons: 

· The individual deliberately leaked internal company information about the review of our redundancy terms and made derogatory and speculative comments to the media about other subject matters. He did this despite there being a variety of other internal routes available to address his concerns and very clear guidelines – in common with many other companies - on employees’ handling of internal information. 

· Following discussions with this employee, he would not give a commitment that he would not disclose internal company information in this way in the future.

· If an appeal does take place, we will continue to follow our diligent and thorough processes, regardless of any future GMB activity or publicity.

· Our internal Audit and Risk department did not identify the individual concerned, contrary to GMB’s claims. Instead the employee passed information to The Times via company email during working hours and was therefore relatively easy to identify.

· Our internal process for reviewing our redundancy terms was open and involved a wide range of our employees despite union claims made to the contrary. We have more than 3,500 democratically-elected employee representatives who sit on an internal staff council – our Business Involvement Group or ‘BIG’ - representing their colleagues’ views on matters relating to work and employment. We ran an open consultation via our BIG representatives over a number of weeks, taking on board staff comments, including those of the individual concerned.

· A considerable number of M&S staff have taken time over the last few weeks to contact the Chairman of our Business Involvement Group and show their support for the M&S consultation process as a whole, whether they were in favour of the proposals or not. Many of them said they were unhappy that this issue had been leaked to the press.


Contact:
Clair Foster: 07748 147851 (out of hours) /020 8718 8323 (weekdays)
Leisa Stewart::07979 712487 (out of hours) / 020 8718 8132 (weekdays)

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