Day 118 - 01 May 95 - Page 57
1 right, my Lord.
2
3 Q. No one is gainsaying that you do not want to spend
4 McDonald's corporation, the UK company does not want to
5 spend anything more than labour costs than it has to, to
6 run its business efficiently and conscionably. You would
7 agree with that?
8 A. Absolutely.
9
10 Q. What Mr. Morris is seeking to test is the conscionably bit.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: Can you think of any other reason why a manager
13 would get in a panic if he was failing the meet the labour
14 target unless he was under pressure from higher up? Is
15 that a "no"?
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is there any difficulty about this? There
18 must be, in any efficient management, some kind of pressure
19 from higher up to increase your sales to keep your costs
20 down which include your labour costs?
21 A. Absolutely.
22
23 Q. Is there any difficulty about that?
24 A. Not at all. He has set a budget in which he estimates
25 what his sales are going to be for the following year. He
26 then, working on that, says what his labour percentage cost
27 will be. He is expected to try and hit those targets. If
28 his labour costs go up, and it is not apparent that his
29 total sales have come down, then he has a problem. Someone
30 will help him look for it.
31
32 MR. MORRIS: If we go on to page 613, in your training manual,
33 do you know what "HHS" stands for at the top?
34 A. Health hygiene and safety.
35
36 Q. Under "Direction" next to the tick it says, "Ensure
37 objectives for the unit have been met". Then if you
38 combine that with the fourth square marker in the bottom
39 two thirds of the page, it says "The projected hours labour
40 per cents were acceptable" that has to be checked by the
41 Restaurant Manager, yes? So effectively the targets are
42 compulsory, are they not? He or has to ensure he or she
43 has to ensure the objectives have been met and the
44 projected hours are acceptable within acceptable limits?
45 A. I have got to tell you I am not familiar with this
46 document.
47
48 Q. Well if we move on, are you familiar generally with
49 managerial training processes and systems and ---
50 A. Not terribly.
51
52 Q. -- objectives. I want to come to the papers of Clive
53 Williams, the industrial tribunal papers of Clive
54 Williams. If someone could help me with the actual -----
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: 101 in volume XV.
57
58 MR. MORRIS: Thank you. It is page 1739. This was during your
59 period of head of Personnel, was it not, in August 1991?
60 A. Yes.
