Day 209 - 25 Jan 96 - Page 37
1 Store Manager that when checking the salad produce
2 I frequently found incorrectly dated produce which was
3 wrongly stored. The causes of this incorrect dating and
4 storing were not investigated and, to my knowledge, bad
5 practices still continue. Buns past the 'use by' date were
6 often redated and claimed to be 'freezer buns', meaning the
7 'use by' date can be ignored.
8
9 "Out-of-date produce was used mainly when there was no
10 fresh produce available, but occasionally just to improve
11 the store's food cost analysis. I would estimate that this
12 practice occurred at least once a weeks."
13
14 Questions 3 and 4: "Why was fresh produce not available?
15 Whose responsibility was it for obtaining fresh produce?"
16 Answer: "Fresh produce was not available because of
17 mistakes in ordering. This can be attributed partly to the
18 fact that ordering is done by whoever is running the shift
19 on the day an order is required. With several Managers
20 ordering under pressure from lack of staff, errors
21 inevitably occur."
22
23 Question 5: "On how many occasions were you responsible
24 for using incorrectly wired grills?" Answer: "The grills
25 have been in a dangerous condition for at least a year.
26 The problem with the grills is not merely incorrect wiring,
27 but the RCD system installed over a year ago. This system
28 cuts the power to the grills if there is too great a
29 surge. However, due to a mistake in the installation of
30 the system, the grills regularly 'trip out' during busy
31 periods.
32
33 I have been left with no option, as have other Managers,
34 but to take out the safety circuit in order to keep
35 producing food. This situation arose on one of my shifts
36 about once a fortnight".
37
38 Question 6: "How many staff did you usually require to
39 adequately cover a shift that you were responsible for?"
40 "Please refer to answer of question 1".
41
42 Question 7: "On how many occasions did you find that your
43 shift was inadequately covered?" Answer: "Approximately
44 one in every three of my shifts was inadequately staffed".
45 Question 8: "Did you bring these problems to the attention
46 of your immediate boss?" Answer: "The subject was often
47 brought up in Managers' meetings but little action was
48 taken as there was always pressure to reduce the labour
49 percentage".
50 A. It was always -- the pressure on labour tended to be on
51 nights, you know, because the daytime you could almost
52 guarantee you were going to have a busy lunch time, but
53 nights could be very variable. So, you know, nights tended
54 to be -- you would have large rushes and you just could not
55 cope with them.
56
57 Q. Question 9: "What attempts were made to improve staffing,
58 food orders and the grills?" Answer: "Understaffing was
59 resolved with rehiring but with the second highest turnover
60 of staff in the Midlands and southwest region (over 100 per
