Day 154 - 13 Jul 95 - Page 45
1 MR. MORRIS: So your evidence is that you were pretty much on
2 the ball in getting the right number of people for the
3 right times?
4 A. I would say we were very good at it, yes.
5
6 Q. You would accept, therefore, that if it turns out that a
7 number of people in the store are working over the hours
8 that the Company finds desirable, or having breaks cut or
9 doing double shifts, or being forced to stay on after they
10 are scheduled, or being asked to stay on, in fact, after
11 their scheduled time, all those kinds of things, if it
12 looks like that is happening in a store, that would not be
13 incompetence, that would be deliberate scheduling policy?
14 A. What I have said to all those things there were
15 exceptions.
16
17 Q. But if you found that in one of the stores that you were
18 responsible for ---
19 A. Yes.
20
21 Q. -- and the Managers in that store satisfied you that they
22 were quite effective at their planning, so that they would
23 actually organise it in an efficient manner, yes, but they
24 were doing all those practices, then would you assume that
25 they were doing that as a deliberate policy?
26 A. As I have already said to you previously, these cases
27 were extreme exceptions. What you are suggesting is that
28 it is occurring every week all the time. If it was
29 occurring every week all the time, then there would
30 definitely be a problem with the crewing levels and the
31 management use of his staff at the time. So I would
32 discuss with him what measures were needed to -----
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All that is being put to you is this, that if
35 it were to turn out, if my conclusion, having heard all the
36 evidence, that a number of people in the store were working
37 over hours regularly, that could only be deliberate?
38 A. That may only be through necessity of not having enough
39 staff. Therefore, if it was happening on a regular basis,
40 the action would be to hire more staff.
41
42 Q. Yes, it should have been put right?
43 A. Certainly, yes.
44
45 MR. MORRIS: I think we have finished. We are just having a
46 final check.
47
48 MS. STEEL: No further questions.
49
50 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, before I ask three questions or more in
51 re-examination, your Lordship was asking about employment
52 of 16 year-olds -- this is not a statute, but it is
53 McDonald's account of what the law was at June 1986 -- my
54 Lord, it is to be found -- I will not ask your Lordship to
55 look at it now, of course -- at tab 1 page 42 of volume
56 XI. When somebody is deemed to be of school leaving age
57 and, therefore, employable, varies according to when their
58 birthday falls during the year.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is pink XI?
