Day 155 - 14 Jul 95 - Page 56
1 Q. You said you had your systems in place by November 1986
2 which was when, according to Mr. Magee's statement, he
3 arrived?
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will have the five-minute break there and
6 then we will go on for an hour until just after four this
7 afternoon as it is Friday.
8
9 What I would like you to do is really concentrate on the
10 particular points you have got in issue with regard to
11 Seven Sisters. As I tried to say earlier, it seems to me
12 anyway we have quite enough evidence in this case as it has
13 come from the Plaintiffs' witnesses about general
14 practices. The point of you calling a number of employees
15 or ex employees is to say, whatever the theory is, here we
16 have snap shots of the reality, so I really think we ought
17 to be moving over to that aspect of the case.
18
19 I cannot make a direction to you saying, "No more
20 generalities", because I do not want to do that in the
21 first place and if I have to keep interrupting you to
22 suggest we move off generalities, it is just not
23 satisfactory, so I urge you to concentrate on the
24 particular points of issue which you have in relation to
25 Seven Sisters. That way we will get through the remaining
26 McDonald's witnesses in relation to more specific matters
27 with more expedition and will be all the sooner on to your
28 witnesses. I can hear what they have to say and see what
29 impression they make on me.
30
31 (A short adjournment)
32
33 MS. STEEL: The problems that there were before you took over,
34 there were problems with scheduling?
35 A. Yes.
36
37 Q. Under scheduling or not scheduling enough staff?
38 A. Mainly to deal with the business, yes.
39
40 Q. You took extra staff on the payroll?
41 A. Yes.
42
43 Q. So, presumably, there were not enough to do the job, in
44 your view, prior to you arriving?
45 A. Yes, in my view.
46
47 Q. It is quite likely that crew would have had to work much
48 longer hours if there was less of them?
49 A. I do not remember what happened before then.
50
51 Q. You said when you took over that the scheduling was,
52 I cannot remember the exact words, basically some kind of a
53 shambles, so what was wrong with it?
54 A. Basically, administration of it was not right.
55
56 Q. In what way?
57 A. Well, if, say, for example, what I mentioned earlier
58 on, that if you are busy during Saturdays, you would expect
59 to open, say, 14 tills, OK. If, say, for example, I could
60 only get 12 tills, but there was a lot of people round the
