Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 55


     
     1
     2   MR. MORRIS:  "Ray Coton was under no greater pressure than other
     3        managers" while he was at the Colchester store as Manager.
     4        A.  I mean, I think he would have been under a certain
     5        amount more pressure than -- because he needed to do a
     6        better job, but that would be by virtue of the
     7        circumstances rather than imposed pressure from me.  To
     8        that extent, maybe yes, but he might have felt under
     9        pressure under those circumstances, but for me to get a
    10        person to perform better, I believe that applying unfair
    11        pressure is totally counter productive.
    12
    13   Q.   This was specifically mentioned about labour costs.  Was he
    14        under any greater pressure than other managers regarding
    15        labour costs, to achieve labour costs targets?
    16        A.  He had fair targets set for his restaurant in relation
    17        to what the labour target should be.  In fact, he had -- he
    18        overshot his targets frequently, and in one month by £1200,
    19        but in other months, for other reasons, he overshot his
    20        labour targets.  That we discussed.  You know, do you think
    21        I beat the guy with a stick or something?  Nonsense!  What
    22        can you do if a Manager overshoots his labour targets?  You
    23        simply say:  "This is what we are going to do, what I
    24        suggest you do to put the situation right".  You know, what
    25        can you do?  What is this pressure thing, you know .....
    26
    27   Q.   So he was under no greater pressure than any other
    28        managers?
    29        A.  I would say probably under less, to be honest with
    30        you.  I did not have to treat Tara with kid gloves or
    31        anybody else.
    32
    33   Q.   You say in your statement, sorry, paragraph (3) -- I missed
    34        this point out -- that when you went through the
    35        performance reviews in the store most of the workers had
    36        been performance rated as excellent. "In my judgment, Ray
    37        Coton was incapable of telling his staff where they were
    38        going wrong".  Was Ray Coton a bit soft then with his
    39        staff?
    40        A.  No, I think he was very nice to people and that is a
    41        commendable quality.  He was, however, rather indirect when
    42        it came to problems and, I mean, you know, that is a true
    43        record of what occurred.  We would look at the PR.  We
    44        would look at -- under the PR heading it would say
    45        something like "appearance", for instance, for the crew
    46        member on the front.  We would look at the performance
    47        review.  Their appearance would be rated as "excellent".
    48        However, on the front counter you would see the crew
    49        members day in and day out would turn up scruffy.  So
    50        "Ray", you know, "you have to tell these people what the 
    51        standards are", maybe,"and let us get it right".  But you 
    52        can just, you know, you do not have to sit somebody down 
    53        and beat them up to get that across.  You just tell them
    54        what you want.
    55
    56   MS. STEEL:   Just going back a couple of moments, you said that
    57        in one month he overshot by £1200 and then another month he
    58        overshot for other reasons.  What reasons was he saying for
    59        overshooting with labour?
    60        A.  On a particular day, or on several days, or for a

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