Day 197 - 07 Dec 95 - Page 31


     
       1      A.  I passed it on straightaway as basically at the time
       2      of the instruction I was told that if I did not adhere to
       3      it, it would be a disciplinary position and I could lose
       4      my job over it.  So, basically, that changed the tack
       5      altogether.  Everyone was told that it would stop
       6      forthwith.  Unfortunately, one Assistant Manager still
       7      carried on doing this.
       8
       9 Q.   Who was that?
      10      A.  That was Sally Spurgeon who was my First Assistant at
      11      the time.  It was brought to my notice that she had
      12      actually changed a lot of hours by Tracey Milleine and
      13      another couple of people.  I cannot remember exactly who
      14      else was involved.  This was investigated by me and Neil
      15      Skehel.  It was proved to be true.  She was actually put
      16      on a performance related action plan to do with it and
      17      other actions as well that was happening at the time.   I
      18      do believe she got a verbal warning which I issued to her
      19      on one of her reviews for that incident and the crew were
      20      actually credited back with the hours they had lost.
      21
      22 Q.   Are all Managers put on these reviews or was this a
      23      specific thing because of problems?
      24      A.  It was a specific problem related reviews that she was
      25      on at the time for under performance and not adhering to
      26      certain practices.
      27
      28 Q.   Was that a review carried out by you or by somebody else?
      29      A.  I was actually conducting the reviews, but it was
      30      actually coming down from the Supervisor as well who was
      31      actually sort of monitoring me that I was monitoring her
      32      correctly at the time.
      33
      34 Q.   Mark Davies, had he ever said to you that this practice
      35      had to stop, that there was to be no docking of hours?
      36      A.  It was a different style of management under Mark
      37      Davis; the main problem being with the change was that, as
      38      I said, the unwritten rules and the unwritten tricks of
      39      the trade we were using, we were told that if we carried
      40      them on we would be disciplined, we had no backing from
      41      the Supervisor but we were still expected to actually hit
      42      those targets, hence why the Assistant Manager was
      43      actually doing what she was doing at the time.
      44
      45 Q.   What you were just saying, that is what happened when Neil
      46      Skehel took over?
      47      A.  Yes, he wanted a total change where we did not get any
      48      backing for anything we did.  Basically, we were told
      49      that, "No, you should not do it, but I want the same
      50      figures.  If you do do it, I will not stand by you and I
      51      will take you down the disciplinary track".
      52 
      53 Q.   So, prior to that with Mr. Davis, I am just trying to ----
      54      A.  Yes, basically, as ---
      55
      56 Q.   Was he backing you?
      57      A.  -- as long as we hit the figures, not too many
      58      questions were asked on how we actually achieved those
      59      figures, so the practices were allowed to carry on.
      60

Prev Next Index