Day 166 - 28 Sep 95 - Page 34
1 store, did you in general conversation, did it sometimes
2 crop up, you know, that you would say something to a
3 Manager: "Well, the labour costs are around 15 per cent"?
4 A. No.
5
6 Q. You did not talk about percentages to other managers?
7 A. Not that I recall.
8
9 Q. You gave them sheets of paper with detailed percentages on,
10 but you never mentioned it in conversations?
11 A. I am answering what you have asked me which is did
12 I walk round saying: "It has to run at 15 per cent", no.
13
14 Q. I did not say did you go around saying it as an every day
15 practice, but from time to time it would crop up in
16 conversations between managers, your labour ratio, your
17 labour percentage?
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let me just come in and then you ask further
20 questions. A little while ago I made this note: "I would
21 not say to other management: 'We have to keep it below 15
22 per cent'." What I want to know is whether you talked,
23 obviously, I assume that you spoke to your Supervisor and
24 Senior Supervisor about percentages, be it on crew payroll
25 or any other component of the budget; that is right, is it?
26 A. Yes, you talk about everything.
27
28 Q. Did you speak to other members of your management staff
29 about the crew percentage in the budget or actual?
30 A. Not really. I mean, that was still -- if we take,
31 I was still in, what, my first year of learning about the
32 store. If I had been in that store for years, I could
33 probably say to you: "Labour per cent is going to run
34 between this and that", barring Easter not being in April
35 and all the rest of it. But I was still in my first year
36 really of that restaurant, but I ran labour, labour ran at
37 what it ran at, is what I am trying to say, and I was
38 allowed to run it at what it ran at because it was down to
39 me.
40
41 MR. MORRIS: You are allowed to run it because it was down to
42 you?
43 A. Yes, I was a Store Manager.
44
45 Q. It was down to you but when you came in you did not know
46 how the store ran, so you had to be told, did you not, what
47 was expected of you?
48 A. Not in terms of labour per cent, no.
49
50 Q. In terms of everything. You did not know, did you, when
51 you turned up ---
52 A. I could see what it had run at -----
53
54 Q. -- for your first ever McDonald's store?
55 A. I could see what it was run at previously.
56
57 Q. What it was run at previously as we can see from the
58 figures -----
59 A. That is only a specific time for when the lad was
60 employed.
