Day 005 - 04 Jul 94 - Page 73
1 maintenance and repair that is required in their various
restaurants.
2
These individual stores are then totalled up and put into
3 a pile basically and a computer disseminates all the
numbers. It spews out on a restaurant by restaurant
4 basis, then by a market by market basis, then by a region
by region basis, a composite of what the people in the
5 restaurants themselves, together with their supervisory
folks, have said is there best shot at next year, 1995 in
6 this case coming up.
7 We regularly review what they have done versus what they
themselves said they were going to do as the year
8 transpires. We can do it each month. We can do it each
two months. We can do it each quarter. We can do it on
9 just about any basis we want to.
10 The point -- what I am saying is the numbers against which
people are being compared as you are increasing, you are
11 decreasing, are not my numbers given to them, alah, do
this; they are their numbers being fed back to me as to:
12 "This is what I think we are going to do".
13 MR. MORRIS: Here we have a situation down in Newcastle where
in January 1992 one manager is being basically told he is
14 going to be dismissed unless he keeps his labour costs
within certain guidelines; also in January 1992 in another
15 store in Newcastle, a manager is going completely over the
top, but she feels under pressure to increase sales?
16 A. You have taken the dismissal as one segment of
numerous things on a page. There were numerous things on
17 the page related to the young gentleman that needed
improvement, as I recall.
18
Q. Concentrating on labour?
19 A. You cannot take it individually.
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can you not just pick them out, for
instance, the complaints started with hygiene, did they
21 not, puddles on the walk-in refridgerator floor, and
things like that, dirty sinks.
22
MR. MORRIS: We have a situation where the company is ordering
23 someone to decrease their labour costs while at the same
time, not that I think Mr. Preston was doing it, but in
24 the same town another manager clearly feels they are under
pressure to increase their sales. Do you not think there
25 was something wrong in this situation in this region?
A. Look, the two stores are different. They were
26 achieving different levels. But I think it is entirely
right that they be compared as business entities to learn
27 of the good things each was doing and share it with the
other. But I think it entirely right to share the
28 negatives as well, so that those who had a problem do not
find it repeated in another business. This is just common
29 business sense.
30 Q. But you do not think there was something within the region
that should have been looked into?
