Day 121 - 04 May 95 - Page 02
1 Thursday, 4th May 1995.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: Before we start, I wanted to say that before
4 Mr. Stein is reconsidered or whatever, that my son's school
5 holidays start on Friday 21st July. Obviously, I
6 shall find difficulties if the whole time I was going to be
7 expected to be in court. I have given the Plaintiffs the
8 official schedule for the school holidays for the rest of
9 this year and up to the summer of next year, so that they
10 are aware of all the difficulties that I will be
11 encountering in the scheduling of time.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will say no more at this stage, but you
14 must do your best to arrange for someone for that last week
15 of this term, because I do not want to lose a week or any
16 significant part of it at the end of term, but come back to
17 me later about that.
18
19 MR. SIDNEY THOMAS NICHOLSON, recalled.
20 Cross-examined by the Defendants, continued.
21
22 MR. MORRIS: Mr. Nicholson, I want to ask you about how a store
23 becomes "Store of the Year".
24 A. That is an Operational decision. You would have to
25 direct that question to someone from Operations. It is --
26 I do not know.
27
28 Q. Not the exact technicalities, but what does it mean? Is
29 there an enquiry into the store?
30 A. No, no, the stores are regularly visited by supervisory
31 staff who carry out audits, operational audits, security
32 audits, personnel audits, financial audits, and I take it,
33 it is the store that gets the highest score, those audits
34 award marks. I take it it is the store that gets the most
35 marks throughout the year, because they are visited more
36 than once, maybe three, four, seven times a year. It would
37 be the store who gets the highest average annual mark would
38 make Store of the Year.
39
40 Q. So its business is checked quite a lot?
41 A. Yes. As I say, it would be wiser to ask that of
42 someone from Operations, someone with Operational
43 experience. I have never been involved in selecting Store
44 or Manager or Supervisor of the Year.
45
46 Q. But as Head of Personnel, as far as personnel practices go,
47 the Store of the Year would be expected to have exemplary
48 personnel?
49 A. Yes, sure. The personnel audit means as much in
50 defining who is Store of the Year as any of the other
51 audits.
52
53 Q. When a store becomes Store of the Year, does that mean it
54 is a fluke for that store, or does it mean that it has
55 obviously been building up an impressive practice over a
56 period of time?
57 A. It means it has been performing extremely well.
58
59 Q. Not just with when the audits are carried out?
60 A. No, they are unannounced and announced visits. There
