Day 179 - 30 Oct 95 - Page 29
1 A. That is right.
2
3 Q. They governed everything. Who told you that?
4 A. Other managers during my time.
5
6 Q. Give us some names, please, Mr. Gibney.
7 A. Mark Davis, Ray Coton, Trudie Jones, the managers above
8 me at my time at Colchester. It was a major
9 consideration. In fact, the Supervisor would phone up
10 quite often in the morning and his first question would be:
11 "What was the labour percentage yesterday?"
12
13 Q. You actually spoke to the Supervisor?
14 A. Yes, I did, yes.
15
16 Q. Would you know what the labour percentage was?
17 A. Yes, it was worked out every day on the daily cash
18 sheet.
19
20 Q. There was a budget, was there not?
21 A. Yes.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause a minute. Yes?
24
25 MR. RAMPTON: Were you ever at a meeting at which the budget was
26 fixed?
27 A. No.
28
29 Q. No. So you are not able to state as a matter of direct
30 knowledge that these targets were dictated by the
31 Supervisor or anybody else, are you?
32 A. I am sure there is a form I have seen that said
33 "Management labour and crew labour targets", yes.
34
35 Q. Perhaps you -- maybe this is just argument, Mr. Gibney --
36 would agree with me that to state a desirable target,
37 budget, if you like, is quite a different thing from an
38 order from on high saying that it must not exceed 15 per
39 cent?
40 A. Yes.
41
42 Q. It is different, is it not?
43 A. Yes.
44
45 Q. How many times did this watering down actually happen, so
46 far as you personally are able to tell us, that you saw it
47 or did it?
48 A. Regularly.
49
50 Q. Once a week, twice a week, four times a week?
51 A. Especially at lunch time periods when there was going
52 to be a large number of, say, milk shakes sold.
53
54 Q. So that might be at least seven times a week, might it not?
55 A. Yes, it might.
56
57 Q. You think it probably was, do you, seven times a week or
58 more?
59 A. Up to seven, up to seven.
60
