Day 128 - 24 May 95 - Page 17
1 A. They are asked to keep it accessible to the crew. So,
2 for example, keeping it in the safe (where some stores used
3 to keep it) is not accessible to the crew, and we would not
4 recommend it. They usually keep it in the filing system
5 they use in the Manager's office, which is nearest the
6 counter.
7
8 Q. The Manager's office; can crew just walk in and out of that
9 at will?
10 A. They are told where the accident book is. It is one of
11 the things we check at rap sessions, is that crew know
12 where the accident book is kept.
13
14 Q. Can they walk in and out of the Manager's office at will?
15 A. Yes, they can.
16
17 Q. Yes?
18 A. Yes.
19
20 Q. When did you instruct stores not to keep the accident book
21 in safes?
22 A. I do not know, I cannot remember any specific
23 documentation going out. I just know that it was something
24 that we started to actively discourage, and it is one of
25 the things that has always been on the personnel audit,
26 going back as far as I can remember, is that the accident
27 book is kept in the right place and that it is being used,
28 and it is probably through that that -----
29
30 Q. When you say "the right place", is that what it says in the
31 personnel audit, "the right place", or does it have a
32 specific -----
33 A. In an "accessible" place.
34
35 Q. That was going back as far as you remember?
36 A. Even back to my days in the restaurant, I understood,
37 as a Manager, that I should keep the accident book
38 accessible to my crew.
39
40 Q. But some managers interpreted "accessible" as accessible to
41 them because they had the keys to the safe?
42 A. You could say that, and I suspect also maybe if an
43 accident book had gone missing in the store they felt it
44 was somewhere safe to keep it in the safe, but the
45 important thing is it is accessible to the crew that they
46 can record the information, should they have an accident.
47
48 Q. Can I just ask you about the documents at the rear of
49 Mr. Purslow's statement? This is a letter to you from
50 Colchester Borough Council, dated 19th May 1993?
51 A. Can you tell me what the page number is?
52
53 Q. It has not got a page number.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you go behind tab 41, after you come to
56 the third sheet there?
57 A. OK, yes, I have it, "D" on the top.
58
59 MS. STEEL: "Dear Mrs. Barnes, Health and Safety at Work etc.
60 Act 1974, McDonald's, 35- 37 High Street, Colchester.
