Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 24
1 Catering Industry Training Board until it was, if you like,
2 privatised, became a limited company, and became the Hotel
3 and Catering Training Company.
4
5 Q. It is backed by the Hotel and Training Companies?
6 A. Its membership includes a very large number of the -- a
7 cross-section, if you like, of organisations but,
8 essentially, it is a research and information body, and it
9 conducts a number of surveys, annual surveys, of the work
10 force. This is one of their bog standard reports. It is
11 the employment flow of one of that particular year, 1994.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, but I think you are being asked what the
14 Hotel and Catering Training Company actually consists of?
15 A. Oh, right. It is an organisation which -- a membership
16 organisation which -----
17
18 MR. MORRIS: In fact, it does have it on page 4 in that
19 document.
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Take me to that.
22
23 MR. MORRIS: The role of HCTC?
24 A. Yes.
25
26 Q. "HCTC Board of Trustees appointed by the Restaurateurs
27 Association of Great Britain?
28 A. Yes, if I might just carry on? "The British
29 Hospitality Association and the Brewers and Licensed
30 retailers", these are the primary hotel and catering
31 employer membership organisations in the industry. It is
32 effectively, as it says in the middle there, "the voice of
33 the industry's concerns on training, vocational education",
34 etcetera.
35
36 Q. I notice on the other side of the page it says: "Thanks to
37 the Employment Departments for funding the research"?
38 A. Yes. It does specific targeted research funded by the
39 industry or by government.
40
41 Q. Right.
42 A. So it is a pucker organisation, well respected
43 throughout the industry.
44
45 Q. If we just look down the middle of the first column on page
46 13, the middle of the large paragraph, it says: "Catering
47 and hospitality employers, as a major component of the
48 distribution and consumer services and industries, had the
49 highest rate of employee turnover relative to other
50 industries". Does that accord with your experiences?
51 A. Well, this is a known fact about the hotel and catering
52 industry. It is bedevilled by high turnover.
53
54 Q. So if you can just take us straight to the chart?
55 A. Yes, as table 2.5 on page 13 indicates, we are talking
56 about a turnover rate in restaurants, and this is a sample
57 survey, an employee sample survey, a turnover rate of, an
58 annualised turnover rate of 35.4 per cent. I -----
59
60 Q. Sorry, that would be high, would it, compared to other
