Day 197 - 07 Dec 95 - Page 31
1 A. I passed it on straightaway as basically at the time
2 of the instruction I was told that if I did not adhere to
3 it, it would be a disciplinary position and I could lose
4 my job over it. So, basically, that changed the tack
5 altogether. Everyone was told that it would stop
6 forthwith. Unfortunately, one Assistant Manager still
7 carried on doing this.
8
9 Q. Who was that?
10 A. That was Sally Spurgeon who was my First Assistant at
11 the time. It was brought to my notice that she had
12 actually changed a lot of hours by Tracey Milleine and
13 another couple of people. I cannot remember exactly who
14 else was involved. This was investigated by me and Neil
15 Skehel. It was proved to be true. She was actually put
16 on a performance related action plan to do with it and
17 other actions as well that was happening at the time. I
18 do believe she got a verbal warning which I issued to her
19 on one of her reviews for that incident and the crew were
20 actually credited back with the hours they had lost.
21
22 Q. Are all Managers put on these reviews or was this a
23 specific thing because of problems?
24 A. It was a specific problem related reviews that she was
25 on at the time for under performance and not adhering to
26 certain practices.
27
28 Q. Was that a review carried out by you or by somebody else?
29 A. I was actually conducting the reviews, but it was
30 actually coming down from the Supervisor as well who was
31 actually sort of monitoring me that I was monitoring her
32 correctly at the time.
33
34 Q. Mark Davies, had he ever said to you that this practice
35 had to stop, that there was to be no docking of hours?
36 A. It was a different style of management under Mark
37 Davis; the main problem being with the change was that, as
38 I said, the unwritten rules and the unwritten tricks of
39 the trade we were using, we were told that if we carried
40 them on we would be disciplined, we had no backing from
41 the Supervisor but we were still expected to actually hit
42 those targets, hence why the Assistant Manager was
43 actually doing what she was doing at the time.
44
45 Q. What you were just saying, that is what happened when Neil
46 Skehel took over?
47 A. Yes, he wanted a total change where we did not get any
48 backing for anything we did. Basically, we were told
49 that, "No, you should not do it, but I want the same
50 figures. If you do do it, I will not stand by you and I
51 will take you down the disciplinary track".
52
53 Q. So, prior to that with Mr. Davis, I am just trying to ----
54 A. Yes, basically, as ---
55
56 Q. Was he backing you?
57 A. -- as long as we hit the figures, not too many
58 questions were asked on how we actually achieved those
59 figures, so the practices were allowed to carry on.
60
