Day 153 - 12 Jul 95 - Page 59
1
2 Q. So somebody would get the blame for that, unless they
3 managed to even it up by this method?
4 A. No. The restaurant manager would not, or the
5 management team would not get the blame for it
6 specifically, and ------
7
8 Q. It would be seen as incompetent or something, would it?
9 A. It would not be seen as incompetent. It would be seen
10 to have a problem with the till operating procedures of the
11 people within his restaurant. So if that happened, which,
12 you know, on occasions -----
13
14 Q. It would reflect on their personnel management, or what?
15 A. No, not necessarily. If you have got a problem with a
16 cash plus or minus in a restaurant, it is the manager's job
17 to investigate (a) which till or person, if there is a
18 specific person has got the problem; is it a problem with
19 retraining the staff; is it a problem with somebody
20 thieving. Then the idea is that you would put security
21 controls on the tills, or sufficient security on the tills,
22 to ensure that the cash plus or minus was not too
23 divergent; and the method that Kevin described is a
24 shortcut to achieving that security on the tills, and was
25 definitely not a policy that was in any way endorsed by
26 either McDonald's or by myself.
27
28 Q. What would be the benefit for the people doing that? Why
29 would they not just say, "Oh, we have got a discrepancy.
30 We will investigate this, we will take action, or we do not
31 know"? What is the benefit of them doing it? Is it
32 because they might feel that they are being questioned
33 whether they are competent as a manager in controlling
34 the -----
35 A. No. It is laziness, really, I would have said. It is
36 probably the key reason for doing that. Rather than
37 investigate and sort the problem out, they would -- the
38 experiences I have had of it, their reasons for doing it
39 are sort of: "All right, you know, if we cover it up, that
40 means we will not have to do any investigation." The net
41 result of that is that it will occur again, because they
42 have not sorted the problem; all they are doing is covering
43 up the problem. We have since bought in a different type
44 of till that means that you cannot actually perform that
45 function.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is sweeping the dust under the carpet?
48 A. Exactly, sir, yes.
49
50 MR. MORRIS: Coming on to paragraph 39, in the last sentence
51 you said: "As I mentioned above, there is not a set policy
52 as to when the store closes. If the crew have not finished
53 by midnight, it was understood that the crew were allowed
54 to leave when the work was done. If people were asked to
55 stay late, the vast majority of the time they were warned
56 about this before they started their shift. It was on rare
57 occasions that people would be asked to stay late during
58 the shift."
59
60 You would agree with that, would you? Is that true, what
