Day 151 - 10 Jul 95 - Page 10
1 MR. MORRIS: After three weeks, do people get a pay rise?
2 A. They get a probationary review, as far as I can
3 recollect.
4
5 Q. They do not get a pay rise after three weeks, then? When
6 is their first pay rise?
7 A. Are we talking about now or when I was a store
8 manager?
9
10 Q. All right. When you were a store manager or now?
11 A. When I was a store manager in Leicester, I believe the
12 practice was to have a review after three weeks; they were
13 a three week probation period; and then I believe there was
14 a two month gap, or thereabouts, to the next review, and
15 then, two months after that one, that was a pay review.
16
17 Q. So people would not get a pay rise for four months and
18 three weeks?
19 A. No, not necessarily so. I think the managers had
20 discretion.
21
22 Q. But in general?
23 A. I cannot say in general. But, certainly, the managers
24 had discretion, I think, depending on the local
25 environments, the unemployment situation and the economic
26 environment, to award a pay rise on successful completion
27 of a probation review.
28
29 Q. Did that happen when you were there as manager?
30 A. In Leicester?
31
32 Q. Yes.
33 A. I did not need to do it in Leicester.
34
35 Q. Right. So, in your store, people did not get a pay rise
36 for something like four months and three weeks?
37 A. Yes.
38
39 MISS STEEL: You said managers had a discretion, depending on
40 the local environment and the unemployment situation?
41 A. Right.
42
43 Q. Can you just explain what you mean by that?
44 A. Certainly. If I recollect correctly, there were some
45 pockets within the country whereby recruitment was
46 difficult. So I believe the manager and the supervisor --
47 with authorisation from their, I think, senior supervisor
48 at the time -- could look at, one, the starting rate, and
49 then, secondly, the reviews in between. So, for example,
50 if someone had successfully past their probation review,
51 they could look at their rates of pay.
52
53 Q. So if there were problems with hiring people, then you
54 could offer a higher starting rate, or the crew that you
55 did take on would get a pay rise sooner?
56 A. Maybe not just in terms of hiring. It may well have
57 been that, looking around the competition, so to speak, or
58 those people in the market, or our particular market, the
59 service related industry, may well have been paying
60 slightly higher than ourselves. So it would not
