Day 207 - 23 Jan 96 - Page 09
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, thank you. I had completely forgotten
2 that so it is just as well it has been raised now.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: Yes. (To the witness): But it is still Company
5 policy, is it not, to schedule people past for women 10.00
6 and males 12.00, or do you know what the Company policy is
7 on the scheduling of under 18s?
8 A. It is that, yes, as you stated.
9
10 Q. Right, that girls should not work past 10.00 and boys
11 should not work past midnight -- under 18s?
12 A. I am not entirely sure about the female time limit but,
13 so far as I am aware, it is definitely for male persons
14 under that age it is 12.00.
15
16 Q. You are the person in charge of scheduling, yes?
17 A. I have been, yes.
18
19 Q. You still are?
20 A. I still do the schedule.
21
22 Q. You still do the schedule. Yes. The third point on that
23 list is: "Nine breaks not taken, two short -- not taken or
24 too short out of 10 days checks". If you go to page 169,
25 we can see that on four occasions people got no break at
26 all and on five occasions there were insufficient breaks,
27 according to this list here. Is that worrying to you?
28 A. From the evidence I have got in front of me in the
29 audit, it would concern me unless I knew the
30 circumstances. Well, it does worry me, yes, without any
31 circumstances to support, you know, what is in the -----
32
33 Q. Is it illegal for people not to have a break when they
34 should have done?
35 A. So far as I am aware, yes, they should have breaks.
36
37 Q. It is the law, is it not, yes? On page 167, there was five
38 out of 30 with a score under breaks taken five out of 30.
39 The final comment, 168, on that audit was: "It was a great
40 improvement in standards over the last few months due to
41 revised systems".
42 A. I think that is an overall view of all the audit, is it
43 not?
44
45 Q. That is the whole audit?
46 A. Yes, rather than just specific sections, I think.
47
48 Q. Was David Wynne brought in especially to make improvements
49 at the store? There was some problem with the previous
50 Manager, was there?
51 A. Alan Charlesworth, I know, was moved to a branch in the
52 Galleries, but, as for the reason he was moved there, I was
53 not party to discussion he had with the Ops Manager, which
54 was Pat McRoy, I think, at the time, so ......
55
56 Q. Can you tell me what the law is on when breaks should be
57 scheduled?
58 A. The law is as regards if a person works nought to three
59 hours, their break entitlement, so far as I am aware, is no
60 break entitlement which, if they work four to five is 15
