Day 197 - 07 Dec 95 - Page 59


     
       1 Q.   You mean you sat on your back side and waited for people
       2      to come and ask for work?
       3      A.  No.  We actively looked, but it is like anything, if
       4      you put an advert out today for someone to come and do
       5      your job, it is people that apply for that job that get
       6      interviewed.
       7
       8 Q.   Colchester is a garrison town, is it not?
       9      A.  It is, yes.
      10
      11 Q.   That means there must be barracks and stuff like that
      12      round about?
      13      A.  There is not surprisingly, yes.
      14
      15 Q.   Did you advertise in the Sergeants' Mess or anything like
      16      that?
      17      A.  We advertised in the Garrison paper in a -- there was
      18      a local garrison shop and places like that where we
      19      advertised for staff, yes.
      20
      21 Q.   What about students, how many colleges or education places
      22      are there around Colchester?
      23      A.  There is a big university, sixth form colleges.
      24
      25 Q.   Did you advertise there too?
      26      A.  We did, yes.
      27
      28 Q.   He says at the bottom of page 45: "Overall Objectives -
      29      (1) increase crew levels to 100 and maintain until
      30      Christmas; (2) reduce annual turnover by 20 per cent."  It
      31      is a recurrent theme in these performance reviews?
      32      A.  Again if you look at those two statements they both
      33      contradict each other.  "Increase your crew levels and
      34      maintain until Christmas", so after Christmas they are no
      35      longed needed.  "Reduce annual turnover by 20 per cent".
      36      How do I do both?  You told me that my answer to
      37      everything is the two written rules.  Well, there it is in
      38      black and white: Maintain till Christmas.  Then what?
      39      Sack them?
      40
      41 Q.   It depends how quickly you drop them after Christmas, does
      42      it not, Mr. Coton.  If you engage people who are willing
      43      to stay as full-timers and go on working throughout the
      44      year, you do not have this problem.  You have some
      45      turnover at Christmas and that is it?
      46      A.  The trouble is the people who tended to stay were the
      47      part-timers for the very fact that very few people wanted
      48      to work within the environment full time as crew members,
      49      and they were the people you tended to lose most.  There
      50      is a contradiction in standards; it is there.
      51
      52 Q.   Mr. Coton, that is not right logically, is it?  If you 
      53      have a sufficient number of well-trained, experienced
      54      full-time crew and Managers, then you can well bear a
      55      certain increase in the number of part-timers at busy
      56      periods, can you not?
      57      A.  Right, if I can sort of go on to that point a little
      58      bit further, it is very easy to talk in terms of the
      59      manual whilst we are sitting in here.  How do you get
      60      someone who has taken a job full-time which they take to

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