Day 130 - 26 May 95 - Page 31


     
     1        that are quite young getting the accidents?
     2        A.  Well, to be honest, you would expect that because it
     3        is, sort of, the age range that our crew extends over.
     4
     5   Q.   The pages are numbered, yes, that is useful.  Can you see
     6        the numbers on the side?
     7        A.  We have in the past prepared the breakdown of accidents
     8        in terms of age versus the breakdown in Company makeup
     9        age-wise.  So, say, four per cent of our crew are between
    10        the ages of, I do not know, 18 and 22, then you find they
    11        pretty much correlate with the sort of accidents that are
    12        happening.  You get a corresponding percentage.  There is
    13        not one particular age range that seems to be particularly
    14        at risk.
    15
    16   Q.   That is for RIDDOR accidents, is not it?
    17        A.  It would be for the RIDDOR ones, yes, because that is
    18        the ones we keep the database on.  The only age range
    19        actually that we found was a little greater was the 60 to
    20        65s.  I think it is more just that if people of that age do
    21        fall in our restaurants, they are more likely to sustain a
    22        serious injury, just because of bones being more brittle.
    23
    24   Q.   If we just go to AC, that third page?
    25        A.  Yes.
    26
    27   Q.   I just want to note that Trudy Jones was a Floor Manager at
    28        19.   That is very young to be a Floor Manager?
    29        A.  No, Floor Managers start from 18.  They are still
    30        hourly paid.  It is generally 18 to 21, and then if they
    31        are progressing through the Company, at 21 they go
    32        salaried.
    33
    34   Q.   OK.
    35        A.  But, remember, Floor Managers here are probably just
    36        looking after one particular part of the Operations, say,
    37        the kitchen.  They would have a shift manager looking after
    38        them.
    39
    40   Q.   If we look at AF, I notice a number of the burns, if we
    41        look at the fourth one down, burned arms and hand on grill,
    42        arms and hand I notice.  It struck me that quite a lot of
    43        burns seemed to be as a result of slips, where people slip
    44        and they put out their hands to stop themselves.  That is
    45        quite common, is it?
    46        A.  Well, going back to this period, which is the mid 80s,
    47        certainly some of the most concerning accidents that would
    48        have been happening were the ones where people fell on the
    49        grills, but at that stage we did not have any other type of
    50        equipment to use.  1992, when we went to the clamshells, as 
    51        we saw the the accident statistics, those sort of -- what 
    52        we categorise as -- manual handling injuries, to a large 
    53        extent, because it is people working on the grill, they
    54        fell in number, and certainly now if you should slip, you
    55        would put your hand on the top of a clamshell which,
    56        although it is warm, it is not going to burn.
    57
    58        Additionally, of course, with the slip resistant floor, the
    59        new sort we put in there, as opposed to the old tiles that
    60        used to get worn quite quickly, the old slip resistant

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