Marks & Spencer has suspended the worker who blew the whistle on its proposals to cut redundancy terms for more than 60,000 staff.

According to the GMB union, the employee, who has worked for the retailer for 25 years, will face a disciplinary hearing on Monday, the day the new terms are due to come into force.

Maria Ludkin, head of legal affairs for the GMB, accused M&S of over-reacting. “They’re acting as though he’s responsible for stealing the Colonel’s secret recipe. He’s only aired widely held views and concerns about the changes being proposed. They are being very hard-nosed about the whole thing.”

M&S, which has been hit hard by the downturn on the high street, insisted that the matter was private. A spokesman said: “We will not be commenting any further.”

The Times revealed last week M&S’s plans to cut redundancy pay by up to 25 per cent, a move that has triggered fears of a widespread jobs cull at the business.

M&S has been consulting on the redundancy terms with employee representatives for more than a month. Under the new terms, the maximum payout for an M&S employee would be cut from 70 weeks to 52 weeks.

The payoff for a typical 49-year-old employee with 30 years’ service would fall from £35,000 to £26,000.

Staff representatives have told the M&S board that the changes have caused “an unprecedented level of feedback, concern and anger” among the workforce.

In a memo seen by The Times, they add: “There is zero confidence that we will not be entering another round of redundancies.”

M&S said yesterday that consultations over the new redundancy terms were continuing and that the new terms would still leave M&S staff with one of the best redundancy packages on the high street.

The GMB has been at loggerheads with the retailer since May, when Northern Foods announced that it was closing a ready meals factory with the loss of 730 jobs after failing to agree the terms of a new supply deal with M&S.

M&S shares fell 2 per cent to 245¾p.

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