Day 209 - 25 Jan 96 - Page 14


     
     1
     2   Q.   OK.  There is a later reference to that as well in the
     3        later notes which I served which we will come to later on.
     4        "I once witnessed a manager who randomly clocked time", is
     5        that ---
     6        A.  Yes, "from people's" -----
     7
     8   Q.   -- "from people's clock card reports just to reduce labour,
     9        although I think this was a rare incident".
    10        A.  Well, I have only ever been aware of that once when I
    11        was in the store on a close with another Manager.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just pause a moment.  Yes.  You were only
    14        aware of it once when you were in the store on a close with
    15        another Manager?
    16        A.  Yes.
    17
    18   Q.   Then I interrupted you.
    19        A.  I am trying to remember the time of that; I think it
    20        was about 1990, some time in 1990, and -- oh, no, 91 it
    21        must have been.  I was a Floor Manager, sorry -- and it was
    22        on the night and this chap was also a Floor Manager I think
    23        at the time, and he was using somebody else's code because
    24        he needed somebody else's code to shut the system down and
    25        he was laughing about it.
    26
    27   MR. MORRIS:  I am reading from the statement again:  "Breaks,
    28        employees' rights to a break were often abused especially
    29        during periods of high volume, i.e. Saturdays, school
    30        holidays, summer.  Employees were often coerced by Managers
    31        to take a short break as to take a long break would be seen
    32        as to affect the other employees' chances of getting a
    33        break".
    34        A.  That was the biggest pressure you put on people, was
    35        you are letting the team down if you have too long a
    36        break.  You know, you are -- people on the front, if they
    37        want a drinks break, you know, if they have a drinks break,
    38        something has to take over their till, there is no-one else
    39        to take over their till, I will just have to wait.  Stuff
    40        like that.
    41
    42        You know, there were other ways of coercing people to go on
    43        their breaks, you know, because there were certain stations
    44        that people did not want to go on and you would know that.
    45        Some people might not like to do fries because fries on a
    46        Saturday is very, very difficult.  You could threaten to
    47        put them on fries.  Some people always liked to go in the
    48        back; some people always liked to go on the front.  You
    49        know, you could, if you were writing the floor plan, you
    50        could always just move them around to somewhere they did 
    51        not want to go.  The lobby, the customer area, that was 
    52        normally, you know, if somebody did not do as you asked, 
    53        then next week, perhaps, you might put them on lobby.  You
    54        would not show them any favours.  You could make their life
    55        quite, you know, difficult if they did not do what you
    56        said.
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What did you mean when you said, as I thought
    59        you said, about coercing people to go on their breaks?
    60        A.  Yes, well, to go on their breaks early?

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