Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 56


     
     1        particular week, he had engaged the restaurant in extra
     2        activities which had cost the store more money and,
     3        consequently, the labour target would be exceeded, or
     4        simply, you know, many -- any number of reasons, but that
     5        was generally what the problem would be.
     6
     7   Q.   Extra activities like what?  Are we talking about extra
     8        cleaning, extra marketing?
     9        A.  Like, maybe, I think in Colchester the best sort of
    10        example would be -- it took, you know, maybe they asked a
    11        few crew to stop on a bit later because it takes longer
    12        than expected to clean up the shift, or I mean this sort of
    13        thing used to happen a lot in Colchester, the filtering
    14        machine would break, the filtering would not get done.
    15        They would get behind.  Crew would have to stay on at the
    16        end of the shift or would be asked to stay on at the end of
    17        the shift to catch up again.  You know, closes were getting
    18        out later than they should do if the people were
    19        productive.  You know, mostly, to be honest with you, it is
    20        in relation to just basic day-to-day things in the
    21        restaurant not going the way they should do.
    22
    23   Q.   Not being finished as fast as you expected them to be
    24        finished?
    25        A.  No, I do not think that is the point.  I think the
    26        point is that if a task is conducted inefficiently, such as
    27        if a piece of equipment is not maintained, and you have to
    28        clean it because it becomes messy quickly because there is
    29        a fault on the equipment, then that creates additional
    30        costs.  The solution is to fix the machine in the first
    31        place but, you know, if you see what I mean?  So it might
    32        be the filtering machine that gets blocked, oil spills all
    33        over the floor.  So, you know, there is -- an age is spent
    34        cleaning it up and it has a negative impact on the cost of
    35        running the shift and that can apply to many, many
    36        different areas.
    37
    38   Q.   Right, but if the machine is not fixed for some reason or
    39        it is fixed and it breaks down again, you would not suggest
    40        that he should just all that stuff dirty or just leave the
    41        oil all over the floor?
    42        A.  Absolutely not.  I would suggest, as I always suggest
    43        to restaurant managers, that we look and try to identify
    44        the cause of the problem and not just address the
    45        symptoms.  I would say that Mr. Coton managed by totally
    46        and only addressing symptoms and not identifying causes of
    47        problems.
    48
    49   MR. MORRIS:  When you are looking for examples of bad management
    50        as a Senior Supervisor -- as a Supervisor sorry, you were a 
    51        Supervisor, just say if any of these would be an example, 
    52        because you touched on these, later closes than expected? 
    53        A.  First of all, I do not necessarily look for bad
    54        practice as a Manager.  I would like for good things.  I
    55        would go in with an open mind.
    56
    57   Q.   If you found out when you go in with an open mind ------
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Why not just put:  Would the following things
    60        be bad practices?

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