Day 169 - 04 Oct 95 - Page 13
1
2 Q. And they all kept leaking?
3 A. Occasionally they leaked, occasionally they did not
4 leak, occasionally, they would not go back along the guide
5 runners because they were banged out of shape, but we have
6 a maintenance repair man in the store and we also have a
7 maintenance and repair and reinvestment budget.
8
9 Q. Do these grease troughs have seams along them then?
10 A. They have seams at the corners. I think they are made
11 out of about eight different pieces of stainless steel.
12 There is a welded seam at each corner.
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14 Q. Every night the crew had to take the grills out and clean
15 behind the grills where this mess was?
16 A. Well, they cleaned behind the grills every night anyway
17 as a matter of course. If there was mess on the floor
18 obviously they would clear the mess on the floor up as a
19 result of the grease trap. There may well be items on the
20 floor, say, cups from the front counter and such like, and
21 you do get a slight grease build up, which is why you clean
22 it each night anyway.
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24 Q. Obviously, if crew have to go behind there to clean it up,
25 there is a risk that they could slip on it?
26 A. If they did not see it, yes -- it being brown on a pure
27 white floor, yes.
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29 Q. Did you frequently see the crew dropping these grease
30 troughs on the floor?
31 A. They did not always drop them. Occasionally, they
32 would, they would stack three or four of them together and
33 perhaps bang them as they were moving them in and out of
34 the back room sink as they were spraying them off.
35
36 Q. So they were not a very robust design?
37 A. They are quite a robust design, yes, but you are
38 putting a stainless steel trough between two heavy metal
39 grills, and it requires a level of precision with the guide
40 rail that is quite high. If you bang any part of the guide
41 rail out of true, then it will not fit in properly.
42
43 Q. You do not know whether other stores were having this
44 problem or not?
45 A. No, I have said that Managers from other stores have
46 mentioned this problem, but I cannot actually comment on
47 the problem itself because I have not actually worked in
48 another restaurant for any significant period of time.
49
50 Q. So the Head Office did not recommend that you all switched
51 over to another design that did not have this problem?
52 A. I have no idea. We spoke to our Supervisor about it,
53 certainly, since he began to enquire where we were buying
54 new ones.
55
56 Q. After how long?
57 A. I cannot remember the specific amount of time.
58
59 Q. It was quite some period of time though?
60 A. I mean, he asked generally if we have any problems with