Day 169 - 04 Oct 95 - Page 04

     
     1        I would have concluded that the best the witness can do is
     2        "the majority" or "more than half".
     3
     4   MS. STEEL:   Right.
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I say that because I think one has to be wary
     7        of asking any witness on whichever side a question two or
     8        three times when they give a general answer and then are
     9        forced to give a more precise one, because experience has
    10        taught me that that kind of answer under that kind of
    11        legitimate pressure just is not reliable.
    12
    13   MS. STEEL:   Do some of those part-timers only work on
    14        Saturdays?
    15        A.  That is true, yes.
    16
    17   Q.   Do you know how many that would be roughly?
    18        A.  The people only work Saturdays and no other day would
    19        probably be 20.
    20
    Q.   You said that high turnover at the store was due to
    22        employing students six or seven times a year, they being
    23        terminated and rehired.  Why should that happen six or
    24        seven times a year?
    25        A.  Because students have holidays and when they have
    26        holidays they want to work.  We have two distinct sets of
    27        students who work for us.  There is a set of students
    28        generally that will work for us during term time, that is
    29        those, for instance, that are at Bath University, and we
    30        have a set of students who would work for us during
    31        vacation time when they come back from their university in,
    32        say, Leicester or Leeds or wherever.
    33
    34   Q.   So they are entirely different people?
    35        A.  There are two distinct groups of people, yes.  There
    36        are some that work both, but there are a great many people
    37        that, for instance, come back and work every Christmas,
    38        also every Easter.  There are similarly people who work for
    39        us during term time.
    40
    Q.   Say, over the Christmas and Easter breaks which are fairly
    42        short, you do not keep them on the books?
    43        A.  If they are just ------
    44
    45   Q.   Only going away for a couple of weeks or something?
    46        A.  The Company policy is if they are going away for a
    47        significant period of time, we would terminate them and
    48        rehire them.
    49
    50   Q.   What is a significant period of time? 
    51        A.  The summer holiday, for instance, nine weeks. 
    52 
    53   Q.   So that would not necessarily apply to the Christmas and
    54        Easter ones?
    55        A.  It would do if they got six weeks for Christmas or five
    56        weeks for Christmas, yes.
    57
    58   Q.   But if their breaks were shorter than that, then it would
    59        not apply?
    60        A.  If their break was 10 or 15 days, it would not apply,