Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 46
1 that I have commented on such as rap sessions, daily notes
2 and so on, would not be kept as a matter of course by
3 anybody. Mr. Atherton has confirmed, however, that his
4 view was that Ray Coton's performance was not that good,
5 I think, and has supported that point of view. So, in
6 terms of the availability of his performance reviews, I am
7 not sure that they would -- they are missing, but the fact
8 that they are missing is the biggest issue.
9
10 I have also, since, reconsidered and said in my statement
11 that, having thought about it, there is no way I can have
12 administered Ray Coton's second performance review because,
13 as he quite rightly pointed out, he was on holiday. I was
14 wrong in saying that I had administered that performance
15 review. Similarly, I never administered the warning
16 because, again, there was no point; he had handed me his
17 resignation first.
18
19 However, as to the matter of his first performance review,
20 I believe I gave him that performance review, but I also
21 believe that he knew and agreed that his performance was
22 unsatisfactory. Surely, that is the point.
23
24 Q. The point is that you did not get on; you had a personality
25 clash with Mr. Coton; you were aware of these practices
26 that had been going on under Mark Davis of docking of hours
27 and watering down of produce; and, as Mr. Coton said, that
28 he should carry on with those practices but make sure he
29 did not get caught because, if he did, you were not going
30 to take the rap for him; and that is the reason why you got
31 rid of these documents, the rap session notes and the clock
32 card reports and such like, because they would have been
33 damaging to you?
34 A. That is a fabrication of complete nonsense, as far as
35 I can ascertain. I knew nothing about this, as I have said
36 to you once. I knew nothing about this. When I discarded
37 documents, there is no gain to me to discard the
38 documents. I wish now I had kept them, to be honest with
39 you, but I have got nothing to hide in relation to my
40 performance with Ray Coton in the Colchester restaurant.
41
42 I, as a Supervisor at the time in McDonald's, had my
43 standards and I expected -- sorry, the Company standards
44 and my relationship with those -- and I expected the
45 restaurant in Colchester to meet those standards.
46
47 There is absolutely no substance in Mr. Coton's claim that
48 I, on the one hand, told him that what I would like to see
49 is the application of McDonald's standards in the
50 restaurant, and, on the other hand, encouraged him to break
51 rules, cheat, to achieve results.
52
53 I, as far as I am concerned -- and I am sure I am straight
54 down the line with this -- I think the easiest way to run a
55 restaurant is to apply the standards as they are laid down
56 in McDonald's guidelines. I believe in those standards,
57 and that is what I expected from Ray Coton, all the other
58 people who worked in the restaurants that I supervised, and
59 I was never anything but up front with people about that;
60 and I think I was very good at it as well. It is just a
