Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 75


     
     1
     2   Q.   First, who was or is Tara?
     3        A.  Tara was the Manager at Ipswich.
     4
     5   Q.   What did you mean by that piece of evidence that Ray Coton
     6        was under less pressure from you in relation to his labour
     7        costs than others and that, by contrast, you did not have
     8        to treat Tara with kid gloves?
     9        A.  Well, I meant that my feeling was very much that I had
    10        to treat Ray with kid gloves.
    11
    12   Q.   Why?
    13        A.  Why, because he was, well, he was in a difficult
    14        position; the guy was, in my opinion, not doing a great
    15        job.  I have already explained I feel that needs to be
    16        handled with sensitivity.  I also thought he was -- to be
    17        honest with you, I did not -- I was concerned about his
    18        ability to put in enough energy to the job, so, again,
    19        I had to tread lightly around things that would require a
    20        lot more effort from him to get put straight.  He was, he
    21        was quite a lot older than me and, I mean, he was also a
    22        longer serving Manager and I think he was due a certain
    23        amount of credit as a result.  But, as I have said in my
    24        statement, one of the things that he -- I constantly gave
    25        him advice as to how he should run the restaurant and I
    26        have said he chose not to accept that advice.  I did not
    27        have that situation with other people.  He chose to ignore
    28        it and then mess up, and consequently I felt that, you
    29        know, if -- that I had to be careful how I approached him.
    30
    31   Q.   Apart from ignoring the advice which you gave him, and you
    32        have said you were conscious that he was an older man, that
    33        he had been a Manager longer than you had, apart from not
    34        doing which you advised him to do did he show any outward
    35        signs, was he prickly, did he bridle when you gave him
    36        advice, perhaps even directions about what he ought to be
    37        doing?
    38        A.  About what I ought to be doing?
    39
    40   Q.   No, when you gave him directions or instructions as his
    41        Supervisor or advice about how he ought to be improving the
    42        operation, did he show any outward signs of not liking what
    43        you said?
    44        A.  If he disagreed he told me, but, to be honest with you,
    45        I have just thought about that, no, I do not think he was
    46        sort of prickly or -- I made some sort of suggestion to him
    47        that maybe we ought to go out for a drink, or something,
    48        get into a more relaxed environment.  He was not interested
    49        in sort of being less formal like that.  But, on the
    50        contrary, I would say he is totally in agreement with me 
    51        on, you know, where we did agree he agreed willingly and 
    52        wanted to solve the problems as we saw them. 
    53
    54   Q.   Did you ever get a feeling personally that he did not like
    55        you?
    56        A.  I mean, I do not think I expected him to like me.
    57        I think I went in expecting him not to like me.
    58        I think-----
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think what Mr. Rampton is saying is did you

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