Day 116 - 26 Apr 95 - Page 31
1 A. That is right.
2
3 Q. This is an operations chart, is it not?
4 A. Yes.
5
6 Q. It does not cover other fields of the company?
7 A. No, this is not departmental. This is just operations.
8
9 Q. So the person to whom the grievance procedure first goes is
10 the supervisor?
11 A. The supervisor for restaurant.
12
13 Q. Then the company says: "Your restaurant management team in
14 the interests of fair play would want you to do that. If
15 at the end of that discussion you feel the need to further
16 discuss the business-related problem, please contact your
17 senior supervisor, then your operations manner and then
18 your market manager."
19
20 If we look back at our hierarchy the one chap we do not see
21 there is the senior supervisor?
22 A. No. We have stopped appointing senior supervisors.
23 The senior supervisor used to come between the supervisor
24 and the operations manager, but when we extended it and
25 introduced the market manger we phased out the senior
26 supervisor. There are now no senior supervisors.
27
28 Q. So he is missing from that ladder?
29 A. Yes.
30
31 Q. It then goes on: "If there are any problems that you feel
32 you cannot discuss with your management, you may contact
33 the personnel manager." Does that mean the personnel
34 manager at headquarters?
35 A. It could be, but it would probably relate to their own
36 personnel, their regional personnel manager.
37
38 Q. Whose address is towards the end of this handbook. "If
39 matter remains unresolved at that stage it can be referred
40 to the regional manager, vice president, whose decision
41 will be final." That simply headquarters presumably?
42 A. Yes.
43
44 Q. The vice president?
45 A. That is right. That was the position in 1989.
46
47 Q. That in some cases might have been you, I suppose?
48 A. Yes, indeed. Well now, of course, I am the last link
49 in that chain as Ombudsman.
50
51 Q. You were the first Ombudsman ----
52 A. In the United Kingdom.
53
54 Q. To exist in this company?
55 A. In the United Kingdom, yes.
56
57 Q. Where did your post come from, whose idea was it? Who was
58 it borrowed from?
59 A. The Ombudsman was first appointed in Oak Brook, the
60 corporate headquarters, in 1974. It has developed. It was
