Day 197 - 07 Dec 95 - Page 66


     
       1      paper.
       2
       3 Q.   Mr. Coton, you must believe that I accept a word of what
       4      you have said about that or anybody on this side of the
       5      court.
       6      A.  Basically, I do not care if you do not believe me.
       7      I am telling the truth and that is what matter.
       8
       9 Q.   I am coming back o that.  "Crew turnover: You have latched
      10      on to this too late.  Recent efforts have seen dividends.
      11      Overall you must stop paying lip service to this area.
      12      PRs must be maintained 100 per cent up-to-date.  All the
      13      features on the crew retention audit must be acted upon.
      14      You did act too slowly.  Your crew retention turnover is
      15      one of the worst in the region.  Think what this costs in
      16      pounds.  Keep up recent efforts.  Remember that posters,
      17      crew incentives, activities are no substitute for good
      18      people practices.  I feel that you have become less
      19      approachable in recent months and have let your personal
      20      conflicts with Sally Spurgeon spill over into your
      21      dealings with other crew and Managers."
      22
      23      Mr. Coton, that is a damning indictment, is it not, of
      24      your qualities as a Store Manager of people?
      25      A.  I do not see it that way.  It is a criticism of what
      26      was happening at that particular time which I am not
      27      disputing, but, as I said, in the seven years I worked for
      28      the Company if I was such a bad Manager why was I not
      29      sacked by them?  Why was I continually told: "You are a
      30      good Manager.  You have done excellent results and got a
      31      good PAC.  The store is a B."  Is that all the marks of a
      32      bad Manager?
      33
      34 Q.   Mr. Coton, the fact is that you had appalling turnover
      35      figures all the time you were at Colchester; that you
      36      could not retain decent staff; that you could not promote
      37      or hire decent Managers, and the reason was that you were
      38      not good at managing people.  The result was, if I may put
      39      it to you, that the only way in which the store could make
      40      money was if you cut corners at the cost end of the
      41      business.  That is right, is it not?
      42      A.  Absolutely wrong.
      43
      44 MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is pretty well what Mr. Davies was
      45      being told by Mr. Holloway in September 1985, which is why
      46      I was very interested in what the turnover figures were
      47      then as well.
      48
      49 MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I do not have them.  We have them in
      50      these papers for when he was a Supervisor, but not for
      51      when he was a Manager.
      52 
      53 MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There you are.  If they are not there ----
      54
      55 THE WITNESS:  If I may make a point on this?
      56
      57 MR. JUSTICE BELL:  --- I cannot have them.
      58
      59 THE WITNESS:  If I may make a point on that.  You are attacking
      60      the way I deal with people there, but if you read through

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