Day 154 - 13 Jul 95 - Page 45


     
     1   MR. MORRIS:  So your evidence is that you were pretty much on
     2        the ball in getting the right number of people for the
     3        right times?
     4        A.  I would say we were very good at it, yes.
     5
     6   Q.   You would accept, therefore, that if it turns out that a
     7        number of people in the store are working over the hours
     8        that the Company finds desirable, or having breaks cut or
     9        doing double shifts, or being forced to stay on after they
    10        are scheduled, or being asked to stay on, in fact, after
    11        their scheduled time, all those kinds of things, if it
    12        looks like that is happening in a store, that would not be
    13        incompetence, that would be deliberate scheduling policy?
    14        A.  What I have said to all those things there were
    15        exceptions.
    16
    17   Q.   But if you found that in one of the stores that you were
    18        responsible for ---
    19        A.  Yes.
    20
    21   Q.   -- and the Managers in that store satisfied you that they
    22        were quite effective at their planning, so that they would
    23        actually organise it in an efficient manner, yes, but they
    24        were doing all those practices, then would you assume that
    25        they were doing that as a deliberate policy?
    26        A.  As I have already said to you previously, these cases
    27        were extreme exceptions.  What you are suggesting is that
    28        it is occurring every week all the time.  If it was
    29        occurring every week all the time, then there would
    30        definitely be a problem with the crewing levels and the
    31        management use of his staff at the time.  So I would
    32        discuss with him what measures were needed to -----
    33
    34   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  All that is being put to you is this, that if
    35        it were to turn out, if my conclusion, having heard all the
    36        evidence, that a number of people in the store were working
    37        over hours regularly, that could only be deliberate?
    38        A.  That may only be through necessity of not having enough
    39        staff.  Therefore, if it was happening on a regular basis,
    40        the action would be to hire more staff.
    41
    42   Q.   Yes, it should have been put right?
    43        A.  Certainly, yes.
    44
    45   MR. MORRIS:  I think we have finished.  We are just having a
    46        final check.
    47
    48   MS. STEEL:   No further questions.
    49
    50   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, before I ask three questions or more in 
    51        re-examination, your Lordship was asking about employment 
    52        of 16 year-olds -- this is not a statute, but it is 
    53        McDonald's account of what the law was at June 1986 -- my
    54        Lord, it is to be found -- I will not ask your Lordship to
    55        look at it now, of course -- at tab 1 page 42 of volume
    56        XI.  When somebody is deemed to be of school leaving age
    57        and, therefore, employable, varies according to when their
    58        birthday falls during the year.
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is pink XI?

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