Day 116 - 26 Apr 95 - Page 14
1 A. That is correct.
2
3 Q. Then it gives you a chart or a plan, how you can tell what
4 the school leaving age is?
5 A. Yes.
6
7 Q. I do not need you to look at that. Tell us this, so far as
8 you were aware, how often, if ever, were these requirements
9 broken, in practice?
10 A. I am not personally aware of any of these requirements
11 were broken in practice. They may well have been, but one
12 of the roles of the supervisory staff in the Operations
13 Branch and the Field Personnel Officers was to visit stores
14 to ensure that that kind of thing did not happen.
15
16 Q. What was the company's attitude in this matter? Was it
17 something the company minded about or did it just shrug its
18 shoulders and say: "Oh, well, these things" -----
19 A. No, absolutely not.
20
21 Q. I think you tell us (and we will come to it in more detail
22 in due course) that there were in -----
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The school leaving age had already gone up to
25 16 by 1989?
26
27 MR. RAMPTON: It had, my Lord.
28
29 THE WITNESS: Yes, my Lord.
30
31 MR. RAMPTON (To the witness): There were in 1989, I think, 327
32 salaried managers; would that be about right?
33 A. That would be about right.
34
35 Q. Does that include franchisees or not?
36 A. No, that would not include franchisees.
37
38 Q. Have you any idea, in the broadest possible proportionate
39 terms, how often amongst all those managers you found
40 somebody breaking the rules on these employment
41 requirements for young people?
42 A. I would say it would be extremely rare.
43
44 Q. Do you think it did happen?
45 A. To my knowledge, it did not. If it had happened, it
46 would have been dealt with very severely.
47
48 Q. What, if you had got to know about it?
49 A. Oh, certainly.
50
51 Q. I am sorry about this, but I am afraid that your evidence
52 is going to be a constant shuffling of files. You will
53 have to forgive me for that. You put volume XI away and
54 replace it, please, with volume XII -- we can stick with
55 this one at least for a bit -- and turn to tab 43 towards
56 the back?
57 A. Yes.
58
59 Q. Just glance at that. It is a two-page document, pages 706
60 and 707, is it -- I hope it is?
