Day 151 - 10 Jul 95 - Page 64


     
     1        thereafter, so in answer to your question, yes I think
     2        there could have been occasions perhaps.  I do not recall
     3        any ones that stand out that every five minutes where we
     4        were calling floor managers back on again.
     5
     6   MR. MORRIS:  Whether or not they were paid for the break they
     7        should have had, you know that there were times when
     8        peoples breaks were cut because of the business of the
     9        store?
    10        A.  They were not exactly cut.  Again nothing sort of
    11        springs to mind as there being a real problem, but I can
    12        certainly think that we may well have got more business
    13        than we anticipated and had we asked some crew to come
    14        down, then I would have liked to have thought everybody
    15        would have been all hands to the pumps so to speak, and it
    16        is probably fair that they would have given a hand as well,
    17        but again we would probably have looked to give them their
    18        10 or 15 minutes depending on how long they had to work.
    19        It was probably those bursts of volume.  I think it was
    20        particularly rare.  I do not remember there being a problem
    21        with scheduling the business into Colchester.
    22
    23   Q.   But having a certain amount of break in a specified number
    24        of hours worked is a legal requirement, is it not?
    25        A.  Right.
    26
    27   Q.   Yes?
    28        A.  Yes.
    29
    30   Q.   So what action did you take?
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What are the provisions?
    33
    34   MR. MORRIS:  Are you aware of that?
    35        A.  They are probably pretty complex.  I can remember some
    36        of them but again it is a human resources thing and I will
    37        have to try and remember from them, but I was aware of
    38        certain -- "between working shifts" springs to mind for
    39        example, that if you worked so many hours you were so on so
    40        forth but I would be going from memory.
    41
    42   MR. ATKINSON:  I can certainly remember there are in relation to
    43        young people.
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  All I am saying is if you are going to
    46        suggest that someone is normally entitled to a 1-hour break
    47        that is the practice in an 8 hour shift, and if it is cut
    48        to half an hour in a situation where Mr. Stanton is
    49        saying:  If it happens to floor managers they are being
    50        paid for that hour, so they are not losing pay in the sense 
    51        but that it is against some statutory provision or 
    52        regulation which says that they are entitled to a certain 
    53        length of break, I think you ought to put it because, for
    54        instance, there might be all the difference in the world
    55        between being cut below an hour, if a regulation says you
    56        should have at least an hour, and being cut below an hour
    57        but not to not less than half an hour if the regulation
    58        says that you should have half an hour.  Do you know what
    59        the provisions actually are?
    60

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