Day 196 - 06 Dec 95 - Page 17

     
     1        possibly verbal sense of threatening that, "It is your job,
     2        I want that labour to be X-Y-Z, get it there, no excuses",
     3        that type of thing.
     4
     5   Q.   Can I ask you question at the very bottom of the page about
     6        under 18s: "We were expected to hire under 18s.  Under 18s
     7        are cheaper re labour rate." Could you express that in your
     8        own words?
     9        A.  Because at the rates at the time under 18s were on a
    10        different rate of pay, if you had under 18s working within
    11        your restaurant because they had a lower rate of pay, it
    12        actually reduced what we used to call your average hourly
    13        rate, which means that your labour costs will come down.
    14        So if you had more under 18s working you could have
    15        possibly one or two more people on a day than if you had 19
    16        to 20 years olds working where the labour costs were that
    17        much more.  So it was actually a benefit to have under 18s
    18        working during the day or on Sundays or something like that
    19        than to have full-time over 18s.
    20
    Q.   Over the page where does this figure of 14 per cent come
    22        from?
    23        A.  If my memory serves me correctly it was the figure
    24        round about the 14 per cent.  It would be adjusted up or
    25        down, but we would actually get what we call a completed
    26        P&L which would give us percentages for all the costs
    27        throughout the store and that would be preset, and each
    28        month we would be expected to beat those figures.  It would
    29        be handed down through the Company, through Senior
    30        Supervisor, Area Supervisor and then to Store Managers.
    31
    32   Q.   You said that the Official Headquarters' annual percentage
    33        set was about 14.5 per cent.
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  How often are you saying that the percentage
    36        was set?
    37        A.  Once a year we would get the whole year targets broken
    38        down into 12 monthly lots.
    39
    40   Q.   You would get percentage for each month?
         A.  So you would have each month with a different
    42        percentage, possibly seasonally adjusted for whatever
    43        reason, but at the beginning of the year you would know
    44        each monthly what your monthly figure was and what the
    45        annual figure was to achieve.  What tended to happen is if
    46        we were set, say, a figure of 14.5 we would asked to come
    47        in at 14 per cent because that would increase the bottom
    48        line profits by that half a per cent hopefully.
    49
    50   MR. MORRIS:  Do I understand it correctly that Headquarters 
    51        might set a figure of 14.5 per cent, but somebody else 
    52        would be setting a figure of 14 per cent? 
    53        A.  Locally you would be told:  "I want that figure lower
    54        than that", because then it would increase the bottom line
    55        sales for those restaurants and increase the profitability
    56        of that group.
    57
    58   Q.   You said the 14 per cent might have varied.  What kind of
    59        variance are we talking about?
    60        A.  No more than half a per cent through the course.  You