Around 400 jobs are under threat in the North as Woolworths begins a pre-Christmas stock clearance amid ongoing efforts to save its shops from going out of business.

All 800 stores of British retailer Woolworths will open for business today despite the company calling in administrators.

Workers at troubled British supermarket chain Kwik Save are to be asked to work unpaid for another week or the company will go into administration, it was revealed today.

Marks & Spencer staff were today trying out “inspirational dancing” as part of team-building exercises aimed at reversing the ailing retailer’s fortunes.

Staff at axed British catalogue business Index will today discover if their jobs are likely to be among 3,200 to be cut by the chain’s owner Littlewoods.

SHOPWORKERS in Britain are suffering a horrifying level of abuse from customers, facing verbal threats and violence and even being attacked in the street after work, according to a survey out yesterday.

Hundreds of workers at a Sainsbury’s distribution centre were today staging a 24-hour strike after rejecting a pay offer.