Day 121 - 04 May 95 - Page 08


     
     1        A.  No.
     2
     3   Q.   According to those charts, which we looked at in the new
     4        documents, under "Controllable Expenses", labour costs was
     5        No. 1 on the agenda?
     6        A.  No, it was not.  It is in yellow -- here behind my
     7        statement.
     8
     9   Q.   I think we have been through that?
    10        A.  No, it looks as though it is No. 1 on that because we
    11        have blanked out what is before it, but the number does not
    12        signify anything.  There were equally important
    13        controllable expenses following those four weeks.
    14
    15   Q.   There were?
    16        A.  Yes.
    17
    18   Q.   What were the main ones then in controllable expenses?
    19        A.  Food costs, paper costs, maintenance and repair of the
    20        restaurants, its equipment -- I cannot bring them all to
    21        mind now -- local store marketing, marketing.  There is a
    22        "Miscellaneous Column" which is the petty cash.  There are
    23        ever so many, and that takes you down to what we call
    24        "Profits After Control".  Then below that there are the
    25        fixed costs over which they have no control -- rent, rates,
    26        et cetera, insurance.
    27
    28   Q.   If people come to work as scheduled and the store is not
    29        busy, they could be sent home, can they not?
    30        A.  They could be asked to go home.
    31
    32   Q.   If you look at that, they can be sent home, can they not;
    33        the Manager has the power to send them home?
    34        A.  Yes, he has the power to reduce his staff, certainly.
    35        Whether he does that on a voluntary basis or on a fixed
    36        basis, I suppose there may be cases when he sends them
    37        home.
    38
    39   Q.   He has the power to do it?
    40        A.  Normally, he would say:  "I am over-staffed.  Would you
    41        like to go home?"  That would be the first reaction.  Then,
    42        depending upon what the result of that was, he may very
    43        well say:  "Sorry, I cannot offer you any hours".
    44
    45   Q.   Even after they have turned up and had been scheduled?
    46        A.  I would have thought that would be very rare.  I do not
    47        know.  That is really a question to ask -----
    48
    49   Q.   They have the power to do that; that is the point.
    50        A.  Yes. 
    51 
    52   Q.   If we look at Mark Davis's statement, paragraph 23, and 
    53        two-thirds of the way down that paragraph, he comments on
    54        Simon Gibney's statement, that the situation suggested by
    55        Simon that people were sent home if the store was not as
    56        busy as envisaged was relatively rare" -- relatively rare,
    57        whatever that means -- we will find out when he comes --
    58        but it happens?
    59        A.  Yes, I said it does.  We try to schedule according to
    60        the anticipated volume hour by hour.

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