Day 202 - 11 Jan 96 - Page 17
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Find out if there were reports of the
2 meetings.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: I am trying to identify, if there were reports, who
5 would be responsible for doing them. I mean, surely, when
6 a Manager is disgruntled and has problems and there is a
7 number of meetings occurring involving quite senior
8 personnel, what would be the normal -----
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why do you not ask first of all if there were
11 written reports or minutes, and then, if you do not like
12 the answer, test it? But find out first of all what this
13 witness's evidence is about whether there ever were such
14 reports.
15
16 MR. MORRIS: Were there any such reports about this whole
17 process?
18 A. There is no report about the meetings. Nothing was
19 written about the meeting that I had with Ray, no.
20
21 Q. Is the Company ashamed about this series of meetings for
22 some reason?
23 A. Absolutely not. There is nothing to be ashamed of.
24 I am quite proud of the way it was handled with Ray. It
25 was a sensitive situation coming to, you know, with an
26 employee that worked for us for a long time, and I was
27 quite pleased in a mature and adult way that we spoke to
28 him about these problems. I think it is a credit to the
29 Company that we could talk to him on that level about
30 options such as retraining, options such as looking at
31 another job. If he was generally having difficulties, then
32 we had an interest in him, that whatever action would ensue
33 that was, you know, right for him and right for the Company
34 as well.
35
36 Q. So, you are saying that that is normal practice, that when
37 a Manager is having serious problems that may lead to him
38 leaving the Company -- as he says, one of being victimised
39 or whatever, or personality clash or over-pressured, and
40 you say it is because he cannot cope with the job -- it is
41 normal not to make any records?
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause a moment, because -----
44
45 MR. MORRIS: I am trying to see if it is normal.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have to say that you are not putting a
48 situation which I recognise from this witness's evidence.
49
50 MR. MORRIS: Right.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What you are putting is what your case is
53 about it, because it is your case that Mr. Coton was
54 victimised.
55
56 MR. MORRIS: I just said that was our side, and I said their
57 side was that he was unable to fulfil -----
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But what you are doing for the purpose of the
60 question is assuming that at that time there was a
