Day 197 - 07 Dec 95 - Page 65
1 in the year. Excellent food, paper and labour costs have
2 been replaced by average figures." By "average" he means
3 that the cost has become higher than it was, does it not,
4 "average" as opposed to "excellent"?
5 A. What they are saying here is before I had excellent
6 figures and that was OK; now I am only producing average
7 figures, that is not OK.
8
9 Q. What he means is that in the period he is talking about
10 which is since May of the same year, your food, paper and
11 labour costs have become higher than they were?
12 A. That is correct, yes.
13
14 Q. That is what he means. Then he says this: "If this was as
15 a result of higher Q, S and C I would be happy but I do
16 not see this pay-off." Do you see that?
17 A. I do, yes.
18
19 Q. What he is telling you there is that he does not mind in
20 the least about higher labour costs, so long as the
21 service has improved so as to impact in an effect of
22 higher sales; that is what he is telling you?
23 A. What he is in fact -- I mean that is one way of
24 interpreting it. The other way of interpreting it is the
25 fact that is a classic line of quality, service and
26 cleanliness that has put in there? As I said before, it
27 is a reflection of if you are not going through a
28 particularly good time, I am not going to turn round and
29 say that every single month I worked, every single day
30 I worked I was at 100 per cent. This is a reflection of
31 that. You have good times; you have bad times. What they
32 are saying is I have gone from excellent to average.
33
34 Q. Look over the page then to 61. The sub-heading for the
35 first part is still "Profit and Loss". Second paragraph
36 in that page which is a single line: "Under accrual in
37 labour is also a false economy." Do you see that?
38 A. Yes.
39
40 Q. What does he mean?
41 A. That will refer to the practice of where you would
42 actually accrue a figure at the end of the month because
43 the payroll was not in, and what happened on numerous
44 occasions is you would be asked to under-accrue so that if
45 you had spent £1,000 it would only say that you spent £500
46 to bring your figure in.
47
48 Q. He says it is a false economy, does he not?
49 A. Of course it is because then you have -- what it does
50 it is a short-term gain for a long-term problem because it
51 makes that figure for the month look good.
52
53 Q. That is right, and Mr. Davies did not like that. He did
54 not like short-term gains though they might look good?
55 A. If it was not liked, why was I asked to do it in the
56 first place?
57
58 Q. That begs the question.
59 A. We come back to the thing that you do not like me
60 saying; it is all right to do it but do not put it down on
