Job cuts fear at York M&S stores

8:00am Wednesday 7th January 2009

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STAFF at York’s Marks & Spencer stores are facing an anxious wait for news, after the retailer refused to rule out redundancies.

The firm, which has branches in Pavement, Piccadilly and at Monks Cross, was reported yesterday to be on the verge of axing 1,000 jobs in its shops and head office.

A spokeswoman for the Marks & Spencer refused to confirm or deny the story, but the firm was due to announce its latest trading results at 7am today.

Maria Ludkin, legal officer for the GMB union, said it would not hesitate to bring employment tribunals if the firm did not carry out 90-day consultations with staff over any proposed cuts.

Susie Cawood, head of York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “If there are redundancies we are very disappointed for the people involved, but we would hope they could retrain and find employment elsewhere.”

The Marks & Spencer reports came on a mixed day elsewhere for the shopping centre.

Dozens of Woolworths stores, including those in Selby, Driffield and Harrogate closed, but fashion chain Next, department store Debenhams and the Co-operative Group all posted better sales figures than expected.

At 3.3 per cent, Debenhams’ sales decline was lower than expected, while Next enjoyed the biggest increase on the FTSE 100, despite a seven per cent drop in sales since the end of July.

A spokesman for the firm’s Coney Street store in York said: “The sale period was very good for us. We started on December 27 and that first week was a good week for us.

“The sale is still going, but dwindling now.”

Co-op reported a six per cent year-on-year increase in festive food sales. Chief executive Peter Marks said the figures showed a good performance in an “increasingly competitive market”.

In another gloomy indication of the persisting economic turmoil, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders will today announce a drop of more than ten per cent in the number of new car sales in 2008. In November alone, sales were down 36.8 per cent on the same month in 2007, the biggest drop since 1980.

241 Woolworths staff lose their jobs

MORE than 200 workers at Woolworths in North and East Yorkshire are losing their jobs, The Press has learned.

The remaining stores in the UK closed yesterday, and 241 staff at outlets in our area are being made redundant.

The Woolworths in Selby, Harrogate and Driffield traded for the last time yesterday. The 31 employees at the Selby branch are being laid off, as are all 41 at the Harrogate shop, as well as the 17 employed at the Driffield store.

Elsewhere, the 16 workers at the Malton outlet, which ceased trading on December 27, are being let go. And the 44 staff at Woolworths in Scarborough, which closed on Saturday, are losing their jobs, as are the 29 at Bridlington, and the 27 at Whitby. The 36 employees at the Northallerton branch, which opened its doors for the final time on December 27, are also going.

A spokeswoman for Deloitte LLP, the administrators to Woolworths, said: “We’ve been working closely with the redundancy payments office and Job Centre Plus to provide support for all staff, which will include a fast track process for paying redundancy payments.” She said Deloitte was trying to offer the staff as much support as possible.

Deloitte said all employees were being retained for between half a day and three days after the day the store they were working at closed to assist with shutting it down.