Day 155 - 14 Jul 95 - Page 57
1 back area, then that becomes a training need where there
2 was not enough people trained for certain areas. So it was
3 a bit of training, a bit of poor availability.
4
5 Q. So you are saying there was not a problem with not enough
6 crew, it was just that they were in the wrong places?
7 A. On certain occasions, yes, there was a shortage of
8 staff, but whether the restaurant transferred crew from
9 another restaurant or not, I cannot tell you.
10
11 Q. In the three weeks that you were there, you said that you
12 had to take over scheduling after three weeks?
13 A. Yes.
14
15 Q. So what was the problem in three weeks before you took
16 over?
17 A. As I have just mentioned, certain day parts there was
18 not enough crew, certain day parts there were too many
19 inexperienced crew, certain day parts you would have too
20 many crew in one hour and then you would get another day
21 when there is, you know, not enough crew in a certain
22 hour. But that was not purely down to the fact that the
23 restaurant did not only just have not enough people; it
24 could also be due to the fact that the availability was not
25 right.
26
27 Q. There was a problem that the store did not have enough
28 crew?
29 A. In some areas, yes.
30
31 Q. Overall?
32 A. Well, overall, it was at the time of February that
33 I took over. I was really trying to see myself, looking
34 for June, July, August, when the summer months come around,
35 I did not want to be stuck with this amount of crew for
36 those summer months as well.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: As I understand it, quite a high proportion
39 of your payroll are part-time, and some of them can only
40 attend on one or two days a week or at certain hours during
41 the day?
42 A. Yes.
43
44 Q. Is what you are saying there was a problem with scheduling
45 because, whether or not had you enough people, you did not
46 have the spread of availability to schedule properly for
47 the trade which might come in at that time; is that what
48 you are saying, or is it something different?
49 A. No, it is a little bit of -- OK, if, like a Friday
50 night and a Saturday afternoon ---
51
52 Q. Yes.
53 A. -- If I have a problem trying to get staff in, I would
54 assume that I should not have that problem if I have a lot
55 of students, because, obviously, they are not going to be
56 at polytechnic, but I was finding different day parts of
57 different days where there was a lot of inexperienced
58 people, there was not enough people on certain hours. It
59 is very difficult to explain, and it is just scattered all
60 over the week; some areas there was too many, some hours
