Day 005 - 04 Jul 94 - Page 71
1 Restaurant and tell them there is a bomb in the
restaurant. McDonald's, as well as the law, dealt with it
2 extremely severely, as far as I know.
3 MR. MORRIS: Yes. The person that made the call was a member
of staff, and was given community service rather than jail
4 as the manager was jailed for six months.
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is the point you are seeking to make?
6 MR. MORRIS: The court recognised she had been put under
pressure by the manageress. The point I am making is that
7 Mr. Preston stated there is no pressure on staff to
increase sales; they either do or they do not. He says
8 just before: "There is no pressure on them to reduce
labour costs". I demonstrated, I hope, that in fact there
9 is pressure to reduce labour costs, although we only
established that for that region. In the same, this is
10 the same area, in fact it is the same town.
11 So, if you read further down that statement of Mr. Paul
Buckingham, if you just turn over the statement of Lance
12 Green, it does not seem to be in here, but it is part of
that bundle.
13
MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, it is page 1887. It is a handwritten
14 statement.
15 MR. MORRIS: I have a typed statement here. I have a typed
version of it.
16
MR. JUSTICE BELL: Did you say there was no pressure on
17 managers to improve turnover?
A. Well, if I remember the question, Sir, it was
18 something about Mr. Maudesly calling the restaurant,
asking about sales, how did they do versus a year ago.
19 I said there is nothing unusual about that. I do it
myself very regularly. I also said that we tried to learn
20 from the restaurants that we talk to: Why are you doing
-- well, why is one, four or five streets away struggling
21 when they are within the same demise? We try to put them
in contact, one with the other, to find out what is going
22 right, what is going wrong, and hope that something we
missed in one can be brought to the fore.
23
Q. It would surprise me in any commercial organisation if
24 people in the hierarchy were not putting pressure on those
below them to act in such a way as to maximise the
25 concern's profits. What matters is whether the level of
pressure or the method of pressure is of an unconscionable
26 kind?
A. The restaurants that we have all have a -----
27
Q. That is the only point, is it not?
28
MR. MORRIS: Yes.
29
MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you saying it is wrong to put pressure
30 on people to do better?
