Day 123 - 09 May 95 - Page 26
1 for that as opposed to, let us say, a person gave away a
2 bag of french fries to a friend.
3
4 Q. Right. But the principle of dishonesty, in the UK, in
5 terms of the corporate culture, yes -- I do not mean giving
6 a packet of french fries to a friend but I mean in terms of
7 dishonesty in their relationship with management, not just
8 for crew members but, say, for management as well in terms
9 of their relationship with supervisors or whatever, how
10 seriously do you take dishonesty?
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you can answer that question, do, but have
13 you not got to give some kind of example ----
14
15 THE WITNESS: Yes, that is a pretty broad question. I mean, if
16 there are some specific situations you want me to respond
17 to, I can do that. I think we expect all of our employees
18 to be honest, hard working employees. So, in general, you
19 know, that is what we expect of them. If there are
20 violations of policy or procedures, then we would take
21 whatever action we think necessary, given the severity of
22 the case. In many cases there are published policies along
23 with the appropriate action that would be taken if there
24 were a violation of those policies.
25
26 MR. MORRIS: In the British -- we will not look at it now --
27 Crew Persons' Handbook there is a list of gross misconduct
28 resulting in dismissal. It says at the end: "Summary
29 dismissal: Acts of dishonesty or gross misconduct will
30 result in the employee being summarily dismissed." So,
31 does that indicate to you that dishonest amongst crew is
32 taken seriously by the Corporation?
33 A. We take honesty as being, certainly, something that is
34 an important value. We expect all of our employees to be
35 honest and, as you have just indicated, there are published
36 policies and what actions, as well as published actions
37 that would be taken if there are violations of those
38 policies.
39
40 Q. Are people in higher positions such as management,
41 managers, expected to be more or less honest in their
42 dealings with the Company than crew members?
43 A. We would hope that all of our employees, whether they
44 be crew or management, to be honest.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: This is very difficult, you know ----
47
48 MR. MORRIS: I am saying, for example, you -----
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There is so much; if someone actually takes
51 money from the till I could imagine that might be thought
52 to be more serious than if someone says to the manager of a
53 restaurant: "I cannot work on Friday; I have to go to my
54 grandmother's funeral". When he gets up to three
55 grandmothers, one begins to think it is a bit fishy. There
56 are all sorts of ----
57
58 THE WITNESS: Exactly, my Lord. There are various levels. That
59 is why I mentioned the example of giving away a hamburger
60 versus, you know, walking away with the day's receipts.
