Day 116 - 26 Apr 95 - Page 10
1 restaurant during that period?
2 A. Content, happy working conditions; the youngsters
3 enjoyed the job they were doing and I got a big kick from
4 seeing that.
5
6 Q. As Head of Personnel, is it called Manager of the Personnel
7 Department, amongst other things, or was it?
8 A. When I was appointed, I was appointed as Personnel
9 Manager. Then when I was made Vice President in 1987 I was
10 called the Head of Personnel or Chief Personnel Officer.
11
12 Q. Can I continue to call you "Head of Personnel"?
13 A. Certainly.
14
15 Q. As Head of Personnel, broadly speaking, what were the areas
16 of your responsibility within that particular heading, Head
17 of Personnel?
18 A. To recommend to the Operations Department, which is the
19 largest department in the organisation, means of improving
20 the conditions, the working conditions, within the
21 restaurants and within the staff departments.
22
23 Q. Were you concerned, for example, with the level of pay or
24 was that set by somebody else?
25 A. The minimum working wage within the industry was set by
26 a Wages Council. What I used to do was keep an eye on what
27 the rest of the high street were paying, what the rest of
28 the industry were paying, what the Wages Council order were
29 dictating were the minimum wages, and then making
30 recommendations to the Chief Executive Officer for the
31 current standard of pay for the staff.
32
33 Q. We will come to pay in a lot more detail later on,
34 Mr. Nicholson. I just want the general headings at the
35 moment. What about hours of work? Is that something for
36 which you had a concern?
37 A. Not really. When I took up the post, the maximum
38 working week was 39 hours for both hourly paid workers and
39 salaried staff. That was considerably less than anything
40 I had been used to in the Police Service.
41
42 Q. I phrased my question badly; I meant was it something for
43 which you were responsible, directly or indirectly, how
44 long a week people worked or how many hours in a week?
45 A. No, that was set before I took up the post.
46
47 Q. What about the hours worked by young people, that is to
48 say, people of 18 or less?
49 A. 18 or less were more often than not part-timers, but if
50 they were full timers, then 39 hours was the maximum that
51 we recommended that they should work. There were occasions
52 when they worked longer.
53
54 Q. There were, I think, in those days legal requirements ---
55 A. There were.
56
57 Q. -- in respect of those people which no longer exist; is
58 that correct?
59 A. That is correct. They were restricted to less than 48
60 hours per week.
