Day 120 - 03 May 95 - Page 60
1 was a misuse of the wages system. That is the kind of
2 thing they would examine. That would be highlighted in the
3 Payroll Department.
4
5 Q. Would anyone analyse that for common themes across the
6 country?
7 A. Yes.
8
9 Q. Have you seen anything arising, any report arising, out of
10 that?
11 A. No.
12
13 Q. Indicating that either everything was okay or that there
14 was a problem?
15 A. No, I just simply read the report. There was very
16 little in the report that affected me. I read the report
17 for various reasons, but there were people who were more
18 directly involved. Payroll people, Finance people, they
19 would look at it because that would be a misuse of funds.
20
21 Q. So it would be a Personnel -----
22 A. And an Operational matter because they are concerned
23 about the finances of the restaurants.
24
25 Q. But it would be a Personnel matter as well, would it not?
26 A. If it was highlighted in the way that suggests it was a
27 Personnel matter, it would be.
28
29 Q. If staff had been under-paid or worked too many hours or
30 had not been paid?
31 A. We have already been through that, that is there, the
32 number of hours they work. That is there. That is a
33 separate report. It would be very difficult, in my mind,
34 to falsify payroll accounts. It must be picked up under
35 the system within the Payroll Department.
36
37 Q. Managers are allowed to pay bonuses at their discretion,
38 are they not?
39 A. Yes, that is checked by this audit team.
40
41 Q. But they could pay a bonus, say, it was for hard work and
42 it could be because a woman who was 16 stayed on until 3.00
43 in the morning?
44 A. Well, there is nothing we can do about that. We try to
45 eliminate it and I am not sure that it never happens. I
46 have certainly never had it reported to me.
47
48 Q. Basically, you would not really know unless someone came
49 and confessed all?
50 A. I feel the mechanisms are such that that kind of thing
51 would be picked up.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let us have our break now.
54
55 (Short adjournment)
56
57 MR. MORRIS: Mr. Nicholson, I want to go through the pleadings
58 under Employment Practices with you as it may be relevant
59 to your position. I do not know if the new ones with
60 paragraphs on them are available for the witness box?
