Day 197 - 07 Dec 95 - Page 74
1 was in on all of this, had done it himself, and knew
2 perfectly well that you were doing it?
3 A. I am referring to people above Mr. Davies.
4
5 Q. No, you said Mr. Davies knew about it as well?
6 A. Oh, yes, I am saying these practices would not have
7 happened when people above were in the store.
8
9 Q. But you say Mr. Davies did it when he was Manager and then
10 when he was Supervisor he knew you were doing it. Am
11 I right.
12 A. Correct.
13
14 Q. Here he is writing these performance reviews?
15 A. Yes.
16
17 Q. Drawing attention to weak coffee and thick shakes,
18 correct?
19 A. He is indeed, but in the context that we are talking
20 about here we are not talking about the actions that were
21 taking place at that time. It is related to the coffee
22 machine or the shake machine, but not what we were doing
23 at that particular time.
24
25 Q. Why would he draw attention, Mr. Coton, to something that
26 could well be, if indeed it was not, a direct consequence
27 of these cutting corners?
28 A. Because the problem we were having was to do with the
29 machines themselves as opposed to what we were doing.
30
31 Q. Then please turn to page 59, which is your performance
32 review for 1st November 1990. This is two years, sorry, a
33 year and a half since the first reference to thick shakes
34 which is on 11th May 1988. Under "Quality" the fourth
35 paragraph: "You still leave yourself wide open where
36 drinks are concerned". Do you see that?
37 A. Yes.
38
39 Q. You told Mr. Morris this morning that that was, in effect,
40 a warning from Mark Davis that if you did not watch out
41 somebody would spot that you were watering down the
42 drinks.
43 A. That is the way I see that, yes.
44
45 Q. What, in fact, it means is that the quality of your
46 drinks, weak coffee, etc. had still not improved. That is
47 what it means, is it not?
48 A. That is your interpretation, not my interpretation.
49
50 Q. If the earlier references were not references, weak
51 coffee, thick shakes, to the watering down that was going
52 on all the time, why do you say this one is?
53 A. Because the other ones were references to direct
54 mechanical problems that we were having at the time.
55 Therefore, the two are not connected.
56
57 Q. The next one (6), it is the next paragraph: "Problems
58 with the shake machine have been recently sorted out.
59 Maintenance of equipment has in the last few weeks
60 improved dramatically. Why did it take so long?" That
