Day 118 - 01 May 95 - Page 59
1 Q. "...led me to issue you with a final written warning at the
2 time and this letter should be taken as confirmation of
3 this". So if we look over the page, sorry on, 1744?
4 A. Yes.
5
6 Q. We then see these labour percentages based upon the sales
7 volume of the stores; is that correct?
8 A. Yes.
9
10 Q. Are these standard national figures based upon volume and
11 -- is that the standard position, that these are ---
12 A. No I do not know.
13
14 Q. -- at the time.
15 A. I do not know. I have nothing at all to do with this
16 kind of subject.
17
18 Q. You do not know about labour?
19 A. I do not know where they are given the guidelines for
20 setting their targets. I have never worked in operations.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So you do not know whether those ones are
23 just set for Mr. Williams in his store or some national or
24 area?
25 A. I would not have thought there was because there are so
26 many variations up and down the country I would have
27 thought these were the targets he was set for this store.
28
29 MR. MORRIS: If it had been set for that store it would not
30 vary, would it, between 60,000 or 110,000?
31 A. It could be.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, I do not know, you see, because I
34 should imagine to run any store there must be a certain
35 amount of labour to sustain the place at all and then as
36 the income comes up I can see it might be expected that the
37 percentage on labour goes down. It does not answer your
38 question as to whether it is a national characteristic or
39 just what they thought Mr. Williams ought to be able to
40 hit?
41 A. I cannot answer with certainty because I simply do not
42 know, but I would be most surprised if that was national
43 because the variations up and down the country are
44 enormous. So I would have thought that has been his
45 monthly -- the goal set for him for his monthly volume.
46 If his month's volume is between 60 and 70, then his labour
47 target should be between 60 and a half and 16.
48
49 MR. MORRIS: Would you think that those may be national rule of
50 thumb guidelines which there may be some leeway depending
51 upon individual circumstances at the store, but the Company
52 would have some kind of rule of thumb expectations of a
53 store on labour?
54 A. I think the best person to ask for that (and he is
55 coming back) is Paul Preston because he actually ran the
56 operation side at one time. I cannot think of anybody else
57 who is coming who would be able to help you with that one.
58 I really do not know what national guidance is given.
59
60 Q. If we note the first sentence in that paragraph says:
