Management at Looe's Somerfield store are due to be presented with a petition from customers calling for a long-serving staff member to be allowed to keep her job. Several hundred customers of the store in Looe's Fore Street have signed the petition in support of Marion Howarth from Widegates, who has worked for the company for 33 years. Marion was issued with 12 weeks' notice after refusing to work evenings and weekends, which she has never had to do before. Anne Allen, who has organised the petition and plans to hand it over to the store manager at 11am today, said that Marion's original working times fitted in with the 'few and far between' local buses. 'If she has to work later than 6pm she would then have to incur the expense of a taxi, which will eat up her not-so-generous wages,' said Mrs Allen. 'Her hours for years have been 9am-6pm, Monday to Friday. However, she did offer to come in to work earlier and leave earlier.' That offer was refused by management and, said Mrs Allen, Marion was told how she got to and from work was of 'no concern'. 'I thought employers had a duty nowadays to be flexible to employees' needs and family commitments,' said Mrs Allen. 'Marion is Somerfield in Looe – everyone agrees that she is lovely and cheerful, always helpful and patient, and above all this is her loyalty and dedication to Somerfield. Surely after all this she deserves better than being issued with 12 weeks' notice before they dismiss her? Marion is heartbroken.' No-one from Somerfield would comment on the case saying it was not the company's policy to discuss individual employees.
