Day 084 - 07 Feb 95 - Page 35
1 work with it.
2
3 Q. Yes. Are we best to direct detailed questions about these
4 charts to Mrs. Barnes?
5 A. I think you would find a much more informed answer from
6 Jill. She has been working in detail on this for years;
7 whereas I have taken supervisory responsibility for the
8 last six months.
9
10 Q. Then I will restrain myself. I will ask you only this in
11 conclusion, Mr. Atherton: Looking at these figures which
12 show that -- nobody should be pleased about it -- 400
13 accidents, reportable accidents, nationwide in 1993,
14 looking at the number of the people, and we have excluded
15 from these figures franchisees, have we not?
16 A. They are excluded from here, yes.
17
18 Q. Looking at the number of company employees nationwide, are
19 you, looking at those figures, anxious, concerned or smug
20 and satisfied or something in between?
21 A. Concerned.
22
23 Q. For what reason concerned?
24 A. Well, we obviously are not happy to have any employees
25 injured in our restaurants and would try to stop that
26 whatever way we could. But, then again, looking at the
27 figures and the fact that we have 32,000 employees working
28 for us, working 364 days of the year and 16 hours per day,
29 you know, I think the figures could reasonably be expected
30 to be a lot worse, but our aim is to reduce them by
31 whatever means we can.
32
33 Q. Do you recognise, Mr. Atherton, that in a business like
34 yours, employing roughly 32,000 people throughout the
35 country and supplying, what, how many meals a day?
36 A. We serve about one million customers per day.
37
38 Q. One million customers per day -- do you recognise that from
39 time to time things will go wrong; somebody may be injured,
40 somebody may get a product that is badly cooked or
41 something of that kind?
42 A. Unfortunately, I think it is inevitable. We would hope
43 to reduce it by as much as possible, but I do not think we
44 will ever, unfortunately, get to the position where we
45 eliminate accidents completely.
46
47 Q. In saying that, do you ever see a point at which you can
48 sit complacently back and, as it were, wash your hands and
49 say: "Well, now we have done our job; it is only a few poor
50 people over a year that have an accident or get something
51 that makes them ill"?
52 A. I am afraid that is just not the nature of the company.
53 In my 12 years experience, I have never seen anyone
54 complacent about whatever area it is, and accidents in
55 particular.
56
57 Q. So, although I think you have accepted that you will never
58 achieve perfection, will you go on striving for it?
59 A. Fortunately, that is the ethic within the company, what
60 people work at. We strive to achieve this sort of
