Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 48


     
     1        expedience ---
     2        A.  There may be other reasons.
     3
     4   Q.   -- or carelessness?  I understand you are referring to
     5        docking hours pay?
     6        A.  In terms of expedience, sorry, I do not mean in terms
     7        of -- there may be other functions which other people could
     8        perform which, for example, might help speed up a close.
     9        You know, if Sally had a job to do on the floor -- not just
    10        Sally, any Manager -- or had a job to do elsewhere -----
    11
    12   Q.   When you say, "I think now she had done it", what do you
    13        mean: handed her pass code to someone else or clocked
    14        hours?
    15        A.  No.  I think she did dock hours when she was the
    16        Manager.  I think she did.
    17
    18   Q.   Tell me what the gain could possibly be to her out of that?
    19        A.  Doing what she was asked, told, what was expected of
    20        her.
    21
    22   Q.   I understand that.  What I understand what the gain could
    23        be to the Manager, that he could keep his staff costs and
    24        thereby percentage down.  But what gain could there be to
    25        anyone in a management position working under the Store
    26        Manager?
    27        A.  I think that the simple answer -- I mean, I cannot see
    28        what possible gain there is to anybody anyway, but I can
    29        only guess.  I mean, management teams work together and
    30        there is a mutual sense of responsibility, and Sally had a
    31        very strong sense of responsibility, however misguided it
    32        may seem now, for the restaurant, for the success of the
    33        restaurant and for her own promotion prospects in seeing to
    34        be associated with the restaurant's success.  She was First
    35        Assistant in the restaurant.  It is an important position
    36        within the store.
    37
    38   MS. STEEL:   She would sometimes be in charge of shifts?
    39        A.  Yes; and she would, in fact, be in charge of the store,
    40        for instance, when Ray was on holiday.
    41
    42   Q.   So she might get praise if, for example, the labour costs
    43        were kept low on the shift which she was running?
    44        A.  Yes, really, yes.
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Well, develop that then, because I had not
    47        understood how that could be so, because I had not
    48        understood that someone who uses these clock card files and
    49        adjustment audit reports to see if there are less charges
    50        on a shift run by this Assistant Manager or that Assistant 
    51        Manager; I thought the only relevance of them was that at 
    52        the end of the week there would be less staff pay overall 
    53        and, therefore, the percentage would be lower.
    54
    55        Are you saying that it could be reflect well on
    56        Sally Spurgeon because less hours had been clocked up on a
    57        shift run by her and that people would actually look at
    58        those documents to check that out?
    59        A.  I think that -- I am not quite sure I understand one
    60        element to what you are saying, in that -- I understand

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