Day 209 - 25 Jan 96 - Page 27


     
     1   Q.   1-s-t in Service?
     2        A.  Yes, I think so.  But the chap from 1st in Service, he
     3        used to come in because the coffee machine used to scale up
     4        every, I do not know -- every few weeks we seemed to have
     5        him -- it used to be a joke that we were paying his
     6        mortgage, because the coffee machine was always breaking
     7        down; and very often when he came to fix the coffee
     8        machine, he would have to come and look at the vat at the
     9        same time.  But a lot of the time he was just called out
    10        just for that.
    11
    12   Q.   Were there any records kept of these kind of visits?
    13        A.  There should have been.  It should be in the service
    14        history file.  He used to fill in -- I do not remember him
    15        dealing with the vat, I never saw him dealing with the vat,
    16        but with the freezers, when they did stuff with the
    17        freezers, I have seen them fill in stuff, you know, in the
    18        service history file.  It is a big file with lots of things
    19        in it, saying what was done to each piece of equipment; and
    20        each piece of equipment in the store should have a record
    21        to know what has been done to it, just for, you know,
    22        insurance purposes.
    23
    24   Q.   Continuing to read: "The integrity of chicken products was
    25        directly affected by the poor condition of the vats (unable
    26        to cope with the high volume of the store) and yet they
    27        were never replaced."
    28        A.  In the time I was there.
    29
    30   Q.   Yes.  Next section, Maintenance and Repair: "Before the
    31        incident in which a Floor Manager was electrocuted using a
    32        filtering machine" -- sorry, was that in a different
    33        store?
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That was the Manchester one?
    36        A.  Yes.  It was -- a chap died, and there was a big
    37        ruckus.
    38
    39   MR. MORRIS:  I will read that again. "Before the incident in
    40        which a Floor Manager was electrocuted using a filtering
    41        machine, it was common practice in the Bath store to get
    42        electrical equipment repaired by the store's unofficial
    43        maintenance and repair man, Jagon Flint.  Jagon fixed
    44        toasters, rewired plugs, et cetera, even though he had no
    45        formal training and, to my knowledge at the time, no
    46        relevant qualifications.  All the Managers were well aware
    47        of this impropriety, but still called upon Jagon to fix
    48        electrical equipment.
    49
    50        "It was also common practice for Managers, including 
    51        myself, to be asked to fix electrical equipment (mainly 
    52        toasters).  This was necessary when items needed running 
    53        repairs, i.e. during busy periods when all the equipment
    54        was being used and there were no spares if one broke down.
    55        It was at times considered a laughing matter, as we often
    56        found toasters patched up with blue plasters."
    57        A.  Can I come in there?  The reason we had to do running
    58        repairs was, if you were busy, and you only had one regular
    59        toaster to do your regulars, if that toaster broke down,
    60        then there could be a toaster upstairs in the equipment

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