Day 196 - 06 Dec 95 - Page 25


     
     1        leaflet.  At the moment the only relevance I see of this is
     2        indirect, that it shows an obsession, you may say, with
     3        cost cutting, and then you say that can throw some light on
     4        attitudes towards employment percentages, which is what
     5        this part of the case is all about.  If I went into
     6        McDonald's and got two thirds of a slice of cheese instead
     7        of a whole one, being a new visitor or a comparatively new
     8        visitor, I would not think anyone wrong at all.  I would
     9        just think, well, that is what McDonald's burgers are.
    10        I am not saying this is unimportant, but if it has an
    11        importance it is in that direct way rather than any
    12        business of conning the customer, because that is not what
    13        you have alleged and you are trying to justify.
    14
    15   MR. MORRIS:  Over the page on page 5 I want to ask you a general
    16        question.  You said that you were taught to dock people's
    17        money so they got less money, they did not get paid for all
    18        the hours they worked by altering their clock cards.  You
    19        were taught by this as an Assistant Manager by Mark Davis
    20        and monitored by him.  What was your relationship with Mark
    21        Davis throughout your period of employment?
    22        A.  I like to think we got on as well as we could do under
    23        the circumstances.  We worked together for a long period of
    24        time.  As my Supervisor there were times when we did not
    25        agree and we fell out but, on the whole, I like to think
    26        that we had a fairly good working relationship.  I liked
    27        him as an individual.  I like to think he liked me as an
    28        individual.  We spent a lot of time together.
    29
    30   Q.   But for most of the time he seemed to be your superior?
    31        A.  For really all my career with the company he was one
    32        position above me.
    33
    34   Q.   Maybe I will ask a different question.  Which people in the
    35        Company were most responsible for teaching you management
    36        skills?
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is obvious, is it not?  Unless there is
    39        some challenge, it is obvious that Mr. Coton was trained as
    40        a Manager under Mr. Davis.  I assume, unless I am
    41        contradicted, that if someone comes as a trainee Manager in
    42        the store the person who is responsible for his training is
    43        Mr. Davis.  In fact, in Mr. Davis' file there is a
    44        reference to one of the matters in his favour having
    45        trained Mr. Coton up to Store Manager.  I am not stopping
    46        you making the point.  I am just telling you the way it
    47        appears to me and wait and see if there is any dispute
    48        about it.
    49
    50   MR. MORRIS:  The last point on the food watering down issue. 
    51        You said by 1991 it had been stopped, but you were still 
    52        expected to achieve impossible food costs targets.  That is 
    53        correct?
    54        A.  That is correct, yes.  One of the main problems I had
    55        at that time was a new Supervisor who, as I said, I did not
    56        have the same relationship as I had with Mark Davies,
    57        expecting us to stop what we had been doing officially but
    58        still hitting the same targets.  So we were expected to do
    59        the same things unofficially but if we got caught we would
    60        be disciplined for doing it as opposed to before when it

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