An employee from Marks & Spencer who was fired for blowing the whistle on the firm's plans to slash redundancy pay has lost an internal appeal against his dismissal.

It was announced that Tony Goode, represented by the GMB union, had been unsuccessful in his appeal yesterday (October 15), more that a month after his hearing took place at the end of September.

A spokesman for GMB said it was disappointed but would now press ahead with a claim for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal and is confident it will succeed in overturning the judgment.

Goode was dismissed on the grounds of gross misconduct, shortly after attending a disciplinary hearing for blowing the whistle on the retailer's proposals to reduce redundancy payouts by up to 25% to the media in August. At the time the worker, who had been with Marks & Spencer for 25 years, was suspended on full pay until a decision was made on the severity of disciplinary action to be taken. He was summarily dismissed in September.

He blew the whistle on M&S's new redundancy package, which became effective at the beginning of the September. It cuts the maximum payout employees can receive in relation to their length of service from 70 weeks to 52 weeks.