Day 124 - 10 May 95 - Page 51
1 do that. But to indiscriminately work employees overtime,
2 that is a waste, that would be a waste of labour. So as a
3 general rule ---
4
5 Q. A waste, what, to be paying people ----
6 A. -- as a general rule, we would not want to see that
7 kind of indiscriminate waste but, where appropriate, where
8 necessary, if it makes good business sense to do so, then
9 we would -- certainly the store manager would have a
10 latitude to make that decision.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why would it be a waste of labour
13 indiscriminately, as you described it, to work overtime?
14 A. OK. Let me try to answer that by an example: If you
15 had a choice of staffing your restaurant, let us say,
16 Wednesday evening with five people and you had 10 people to
17 choose from, if three of those individuals -- and you just
18 needed five out of the 10 -- if three of those individuals
19 had already worked enough hours, that any additional hours
20 it would be overtime, and you could clearly staff your
21 restaurant properly with five individuals that had not
22 exceeded overtime, then that would be the appropriate
23 decision to use those five people and not the three people
24 that would go an overtime status.
25
26 MR. MORRIS: So, you have to pay people more money, do you, for
27 overtime?
28 A. You pay people more time for -- more money for
29 overtime, yes.
30
31 Q. Is that the law in America, if someone works over 40 hours
32 then they have to get overtime payments?
33 A. They get overtime and in some cases, in some
34 industries, they get, you know, it is double time. There
35 is a premium. There is a premium paid for working over a
36 certain number of hours, whether it is 37 and a half or 40;
37 it varies depending upon the industry.
38
39 Q. So is that a fair law, in your opinion, in terms of
40 protecting workers that do work longer hours than 40 or 39
41 hours?
42 A. I think it is -- a personal opinion?
43
44 Q. Yes.
45 A. I think it is fair.
46
47 Q. It is fair. I mean fair for the employees. Whether the
48 employer likes it, it is fair for the employees?
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is the way I have understood it.
51
52 MR. MORRIS: Yes. (To the witness): You said in your statement
53 that you can recall some incidents, a few incidents, of
54 staff discontent in the Washington area just before you
55 were promoted to Area Supervisor. Could you give us some
56 examples of staff discontent that you were aware of?
57 A. You are referring to a previous statement?
58
59 Q. Sorry, paragraph 6.
60
