Day 161 - 24 Jul 95 - Page 28
1 A. That is correct.
2
3 Q. So, roughly how many less would be on the payroll when it
4 was not?
5 A. I think it would go to 150, 150 employees.
6
7 Q. The memo that we looked at was October 1987, the one that
8 said that it was 190 crew. Would that still be like the
9 tail end of the summer, or something?
10 A. October also is a busy period. There is a half term in
11 October, which is very busy period, and those periods that
12 we do have the highest number, starting the winter season;
13 so from then onwards.
14
15 Q. It might be easier to say: when were the quiet months in
16 the Strand store when you would have 150 crew members?
17 A. From January, end of January, onwards until about March
18 is quiet.
19
20 Q. So, after Christmas, would you have to get rid of quite a
21 few staff?
22 A. As I said, some of them go back to college as Christmas
23 holiday is over; and we do not have to do anything with
24 them, so usually they go and come back. Some people do
25 only come back for only short period of their holiday while
26 the Christmas holiday or summer holiday; those people will
27 go back to where they want to go back. So that suits us as
28 well.
29
30 Q. Are you saying that roughly the 50 or so people that left,
31 are you saying that they were all students who were -----
32 A. Not all of them. We take few from that busy period,
33 and some of them come from the holiday and leave, come back
34 to work. So we do take them, proportionately few.
35
36 Q. Did you always have enough people who wanted to leave, to
37 cut your numbers down by about 53?
38 A. No. I do not understand the question.
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is being put to you is that you have 200
41 at a busy period on the payroll, or thereabouts. Christmas
42 is a busy period.
43 A. Yes.
44
45 Q. You were asked what a less busy or quiet period would be,
46 and you gave January through to March. January comes after
47 Christmas, so the inference, it is suggested, is that you
48 drop from about 200 at the end of December to 150 some time
49 in January; and Ms. Steel is asking you whether you can
50 accommodate that drop just by people who are going back to
51 college, or you would have to lay people off the payroll in
52 order to achieve it?
53 A. No. We do not lay crew members off the payroll just
54 because January is appearing and because business is slow.
55 The students go back, and we see what we have; and the
56 people who work full-time during the holidays, they go to
57 part-time, so we share their hours equally to other people;
58 people who still want to stay behind, we share the hours,
59 the people who go part-time.
60
