Retailer M&S is facing furious staff over its plans to cut its redundancy payout by up to 25%.

According to a story reported in The Times newspaper, M&S wants to cut the maximum payout that employees can receive in relation to their length of service from 70 weeks to 52 weeks. An employee due £35,000 under present terms would see their payout fall by £9,000.

The proposals have triggered concerns that the outfit is planning a large-scale redundancy programme. The changes come only a year after M&S overhauled the pension scheme in a way that forced staff to increase their contributions to guarantee the same level of benefits.

A spokesperson for M&S told HRZone.co.uk: “We are consulting with our national employee representatives on changes proposed to our company redundancy terms. Like any business we do this from time to time to ensure our policies are up-to-date and to make sure we’re in-line with the market. It’s our aim that our proposed new terms continue to be more generous than the majority of our competitors, and will remain well ahead of our statutory requirements.”

The final outcome will be implemented on 1 September 2008.