Day 085 - 08 Feb 95 - Page 29


     
     1        shake machine.  I do not know what it was, but it was just
     2        a "for instance", and when talking about shake machines, we
     3        often disparagingly talk about our competitors who do not
     4        clean the machines as often as we do, that that may well be
     5        the result if they do not follow the same procedures as
     6        ourselves.
     7
     8   MS. STEEL:  I did not actually mean "report" in the sense of a
     9        formal report.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, that is what I was keen to find out.
    12
    13   MS. STEEL:  Right.  (To the witness):  When you heard about
    14        maggots in the shake machines, did you take any steps in
    15        regard to what your responsibilities were at that time?
    16        A.  No, it was just like a story you hear down the pub.  It
    17        was just one of those things.  We know that the procedures
    18        were carried out in our restaurants.  It is one of the
    19        procedures that it is very difficult not to do, to sanitize
    20        your shake machine at the end of the night.  It is very
    21        apparent to the manager who comes in the next day, so you
    22        cannot get away with not disassembling and cleaning your
    23        shake machine on an evening.  The people who come the next
    24        day know about it.
    25
    26   Q.   They would if they checked?
    27        A.  It is self-evident.  To take it apart you have to take
    28        all the mix out of it, disassemble it completely, so the
    29        machine is in pieces when you come in the morning.  If the
    30        machine still has mix in it when you come in the morning,
    31        you know it has not been disassembled the previous night.
    32
    33   Q.   What checks are made in stores to ensure that things like
    34        mouldy buns are not used?
    35        A.  Mouldy buns, one of the easier checks is visual.  You
    36        can just see that a bun is mouldy so it would not be used.
    37
    38   Q.   Right.  But there is pressure to avoid wastage in the
    39        stores, is there not?
    40        A.  Not really pressure to avoid wastage, no.
    41
    42   Q.   Are you aware of instances of mould being scraped off?
    43        A.  No, I have never heard that.
    44
    45   Q.   What about buns that are dropped on the floor?  Are you
    46        aware of instances of employees who are under pressure and
    47        being shouted out by management, dropping buns on the floor
    48        and then using them because they were worried about too
    49        much wastage?
    50        A.  No, it is sort of just against all the sort of 
    51        principles of managing the restaurants and the people that 
    52        I work with, to actually contemplate taking a bun off the 
    53        floor and reusing it again.  If a crew member were to do
    54        that, the likely outcome is the manager would instruct them
    55        very strongly and definitely that that is something they
    56        should not do.
    57
    58   Q.   Did you ever get reports of that happening when you were a
    59        manager?  Did you ever hear of instances like that?
    60        A.  I heard of instances of new people doing it but also of

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