Day 118 - 01 May 95 - Page 73
1
2 Q. It would be your job, would it not, to monitor that policy,
3 in effect, to make sure that the company's policy or any
4 illegalities were being ----
5 A. It would be the responsibility of the both the
6 Operations Department and the Human Resources Department to
7 do that, yes.
8
9 Q. Which includes your Personnel?
10 A. Yes.
11
12 Q. Because it is responsible for Human Resources?
13 A. Yes.
14
15 Q. You said you made general visits to stores?
16 A. Yes.
17
18 Q. Were your visits generally kind of routine visits, you went
19 and chatted with the manager, just looked at the whole
20 operation?
21 A. There would be various reasons for me to visit the
22 store. If I was going to visit the Northern region, for
23 instance, I would obviously let the regional manager know
24 I was coming and on the way there I would visit some stores
25 unannounced. Then I would arrange with the Head of
26 Personnel for the region, head of security for the region,
27 to visit some of their stores with the local regional
28 head. I would also visit franchisees because at that time
29 I was responsible for the whole of the franchise operation
30 in the United Kingdom. So, I visit them sometimes
31 arranged, sometimes not arranged; sometimes by invitation
32 of course.
33
34 Q. What I am saying is, for example, there were some stores in
35 the London area around 1989/90 that were employing some
36 young children, yes, 15 year olds?
37 A. Yes, I do not know how many.
38
39 Q. You did not visit those stores?
40 A. Not for that particular reason. I do not know.
41
42 Q. That is what I am saying.
43 A. Not for that particular reason.
44
45 Q. Was the reason you visited stores more of a
46 general -- I would have thought that would be something
47 which if you were concerned with specific ----
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why not just put to him: Do you think you
50 ought to have visited because there were 15-year olds
51 working there or there might be?
52 A. The answer to that would be, no, I did not but my human
53 resource officers would. They would know the stores they
54 were responsible for, who were employing them, and they
55 would visit certainly.
56
57 MR. MORRIS: So, was this generally the situation on all
58 matters, that if it was a specialised matter there would be
59 somebody that would deal with it rather than you?
60 A. I could deal with some specialised matters. I mean
