Day 118 - 01 May 95 - Page 64
1 A. Well, I do not know what the illegalities are, but his
2 Lordship should said if, for instance, it was something to
3 do with employment law, yes, it would be looked at by
4 personnel; yes, they would be conscious of whether a trend
5 was developing and take the appropriate action.
6
7 Q. Right, as Head of Personnel, between, was it, 1986 and 1991
8 or was it 1984?
9 A. 1984.
10
11 Q. What were the trends that you can remember of infringements
12 of McDonald's policies or illegalities? What are some of
13 the things which your department identified as being -----
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You had better ask him if there were any
16 trends, first of all.
17
18 MR. MORRIS: Did you discover when you were monitoring problems
19 any trends or patterns?
20 A. Of illegal occurrences?
21
22 Q. Legal or infringement of your policies.
23
24 MR. RAMPTON: Perhaps, my Lord, one ought to deal with them
25 separately.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I suggest you divide them up because
28 then we know exactly what we are on. Deal with the greater
29 first, illegality of some kind or other.
30
31 MR. MORRIS: Yes. (To the witness): What about illegalities?
32 What kind of things came to your Department's attention?
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can I interrupt again? You were being asked
35 about trends.
36 A. Yes, I cannot think of any. Trends of illegal actions
37 within our restaurants?
38
39 MR. MORRIS: You cannot recall anything or think of anything?
40 A. No. I can think of when things have gone wrong on a
41 single occasion, but not trends.
42
43 Q. What kind of single occasion? Give us some examples.
44
45 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I am not sure about this. This seems to
46 me a bit like a trawl by Mr. Morris. He has managed to
47 allege one or two things in the Defence. I am not sure he
48 is entitled to trawl Mr. Nicholson's memory of incidents of
49 which the Defendants have no knowledge and have not pleaded
50 and have no evidence about.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you may be right, but having got this
53 far, all you are being asked is whether you can remember
54 any specific instances. I am assuming that from time to
55 time in any -- may be I will persuaded I should not assume
56 it -- large organisation which has a series of outlets
57 which are managed by people, some of whom may be better
58 than others at doing their jobs, you are going to get
59 transgressions of one kind or another?
60 A. Of course you are, yes.
