Day 154 - 13 Jul 95 - Page 44
1 suddenly turned up?
2 A. That was an example that I chose to illustrate an
3 instance of what could happen. As I say, it was -----
4
5 Q. It could happen if Saturday lunch-time suddenly got a
6 little bit busier?
7 A. Well, in theory, it could happen. I do not recall it
8 ever happening over a Saturday lunch-time. We did not
9 usually use to give out breaks during a Saturday lunch-time
10 between 12.00 and 2.00 because that was the peak period.
11 We used to work breaks around the 12.00 to 2.00 period.
12
13 Q. OK. If it got a bit busier during the afternoon it could
14 happen, it did happen?
15 A. It could happen exceptionally, as I said before, yes.
16
17 Q. Why did you not schedule extra staff for every shift to
18 cope with any fluctuations in demand?
19 A. We used to schedule enough staff to cope with any, what
20 I would term, normal fluctuations in business. What I am
21 talking about here is exceptional circumstances which may
22 occur, sort of, once every two months or longer or
23 whatever. Therefore, you know, it would not really make
24 good sense to schedule extra staff for two months just for
25 the half an hour or so where you have an extra rush.
26
27 Q. The scheduling would be based on the previous, is it, week
28 or month, or something like that?
29 A. We used to look at the previous year, so the
30 corresponding week.
31
32 Q. The corresponding week exactly a year prior to?
33 A. Yes, and the previous three weeks, and then combine the
34 two data and then allow for special events. For instance,
35 if there was going to be a fair at the bottom of the high
36 street or a meeting at the town hall or something like
37 which may generate extra business, then we would
38 incorporate into the projections, perhaps allow for an
39 increase over the previous year of whatever percentage
40 increase we were doing over the previous year and work out
41 a projection in that manner.
42
43 Q. So that would not necessarily take into account the
44 fluctuations?
45 A. We generally -- say, we projected 21,000, we would, for
46 the week, then, as I remember it, we would generally be
47 within, sort of -- at most we were ever out was three or
48 œ400.
49
50 Q. So you felt the scheduling was pretty accurate?
51 A. Well, we used to pride ourselves on the accuracy of the
52 projections of the business.
53
54 Q. It was run to a fairly tight scheme?
55 A. Well, it was run to an optimum scheme in that so we
56 could optimise the business coming in.
57
58 Q. And not waste any money on excess crew?
59 A. Not waste, no.
60
