Day 202 - 11 Jan 96 - Page 16


     
     1
     2        Then it says: "As a way of seeking solutions, John Atherton
     3        suggested that Ray Coton should retrain, going through the
     4        basic management programme designed for trainee managers
     5        but without taking the exam."
     6
     7        Mr. Skehel remembers that.  Do you remember that?
     8        A.  I remember the discussion of various options for Ray to
     9        help him to address the problems he was having in managing
    10        his restaurant and suggesting that he could take some
    11        retraining to enable him to cope, was one of those
    12        suggestions.
    13
    14   Q.   How many Managers go through retraining?  Is that something
    15        that is fairly -----
    16        A.  Well, within the Company, it is common for people to do
    17        refresher courses after a while; and, also, it would be
    18        common if you had a problem with the performance of one of
    19        the managers, you have discussion with him about that.  If
    20        he thought it would be useful for him to do that, then we
    21        would send him on a course just to refresh himself on that.
    22
    23   Q.   So, it is not a punishment thing; it is something that is
    24        available for Managers at any suitable time?
    25        A.  It is available for Managers, and normally done
    26        systematically; round about after five years or so you
    27        would go back, because things would have changed on the
    28        course.  But it is unusual -- it is an indicator of poor
    29        performance to suggest that you need to go on a retraining
    30        course to help you resolve the problems you are having
    31        within the restaurant.
    32
    33   Q.   Who would write up the reports of these kind of meetings
    34        where you review somebody's career or present position; who
    35        would write that up as a report?
    36        A.  It would be -- a report was not always written up when
    37        you would discuss these things.  I think, with Ray, my
    38        recollection is that there was an ongoing dialogue with him
    39        about this.  So, if we are just referring to the meeting
    40        that we talked about before, that was not written up; that
    41        was, you know, a face to face discussion.
    42
    43   Q.   When a Manager ends their time at McDonald's over a period
    44        of time and their performance is being reviewed and various
    45        options being put forward, goals and objectives and all the
    46        other stuff are coming out, being discussed, whose
    47        responsibility would it be to write a report of that so
    48        that people know what is going on, so that the personnel
    49        department knows what is going on, operations department
    50        knows what is going on?  Who would be responsible for that? 
    51        A.  In the case of Ray, the communication was slightly 
    52        better than writing a report.  Neil had involved me, and I 
    53        was involved with discussing with Ray.
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are you talking about the reviews which we
    56        have seen copies of from the personnel files?
    57
    58   MR. MORRIS:  No.  I mean the reports of these meetings, this
    59        series of meetings.
    60

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