Day 161 - 24 Jul 95 - Page 28


     
     1        A.  That is correct.
     2
     3   Q.   So, roughly how many less would be on the payroll when it
     4        was not?
     5        A.  I think it would go to 150, 150 employees.
     6
     7   Q.   The memo that we looked at was October 1987, the one that
     8        said that it was 190 crew.  Would that still be like the
     9        tail end of the summer, or something?
    10        A.  October also is a busy period.  There is a half term in
    11        October, which is very busy period, and those periods that
    12        we do have the highest number, starting the winter season;
    13        so from then onwards.
    14
    15   Q.   It might be easier to say: when were the quiet months in
    16        the Strand store when you would have 150 crew members?
    17        A.  From January, end of January, onwards until about March
    18        is quiet.
    19
    20   Q.   So, after Christmas, would you have to get rid of quite a
    21        few staff?
    22        A.  As I said, some of them go back to college as Christmas
    23        holiday is over; and we do not have to do anything with
    24        them, so usually they go and come back.  Some people do
    25        only come back for only short period of their holiday while
    26        the Christmas holiday or summer holiday; those people will
    27        go back to where they want to go back.  So that suits us as
    28        well.
    29
    30   Q.   Are you saying that roughly the 50 or so people that left,
    31        are you saying that they were all students who were -----
    32        A.  Not all of them.  We take few from that busy period,
    33        and some of them come from the holiday and leave, come back
    34        to work.  So we do take them, proportionately few.
    35
    36   Q.   Did you always have enough people who wanted to leave, to
    37        cut your numbers down by about 53?
    38        A.  No.  I do not understand the question.
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What is being put to you is that you have 200
    41        at a busy period on the payroll, or thereabouts.  Christmas
    42        is a busy period.
    43        A.  Yes.
    44
    45   Q.   You were asked what a less busy or quiet period would be,
    46        and you gave January through to March.  January comes after
    47        Christmas, so the inference, it is suggested, is that you
    48        drop from about 200 at the end of December to 150 some time
    49        in January; and Ms. Steel is asking you whether you can
    50        accommodate that drop just by people who are going back to 
    51        college, or you would have to lay people off the payroll in 
    52        order to achieve it? 
    53        A.  No.  We do not lay crew members off the payroll just
    54        because January is appearing and because business is slow.
    55        The students go back, and we see what we have; and the
    56        people who work full-time during the holidays, they go to
    57        part-time, so we share their hours equally to other people;
    58        people who still want to stay behind, we share the hours,
    59        the people who go part-time.
    60

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