Day 198 - 08 Dec 95 - Page 18

     
     1        and look from another direction that you feel, you know:
     2        "What are we doing?"  It was madness.
     3
     4   Q.   I will leave watering down on one side and reducing food
     5        portions, Mr. Coton.  Surely, stealing, in effect, stealing
     6        the crews' wages by docking their hours, speaks for itself;
     7        nobody could think that was right, could they?
     8        A.  Again, it is -- I have no excuse for it.  It was
     9        something that we, as a training Manager, it was trained
    10        into me to do, and it soon just became part of -- part and
    11        parcel of the job, and it was just another thing with the
    12        job.  As I said, it is only when you leave and you
    13        suddenly, sort of, take breath and you look back and you
    14        think:  "Well, I do not believe what we were expected to do
    15        and what we were pushed into doing".  The whole pressure of
    16        the job, you just do not realise some of the time what is
    17        actually happening and what you are doing until you stop
    18        doing it.
    19
    20   Q.   Did you tell the senior people who came down to Colchester,
         you say, after you wrote this letter, did you tell all of
    22        them, Mr. Atherton, Mr. Tim Taylor and Mr. Michael Guerin,
    23        about what had been going on at the Colchester High Street
    24        store?
    25        A.  No.  I concentrated on the way that I was being treated
    26        and the victimisation that I was under.
    27
    28   Q.   If you felt you were being victimised, over pressurised or
    29        whatever by Mr. Skehel, why did you not tell them about the
    30        things you had been made to do by Mr. Davis?
    31        A.  Well, because if I was trying to get a reaction to,
    32        because I wanted to stay with the Company, it would be
    33        counter productive, would it not?
    34
    35   Q.   Tell me this finally:  When you were a Security Coordinator
    36        which is, I think, from 20th August 1984 until 1st November
    37        84 when you became a Trainee Manager and, therefore,
    38        salaried ---
    39        A.  Yes
    40
    Q.   -- you were hourly paid, were you not?
    42        A.  I was, yes.
    43
    44   Q.   Were you conscious that your hours were being docked then?
    45        A.  I was not conscious of it.
    46
    47   Q.   No.  Did you check your payslips?
    48        A.  I did, yes.
    49
    50   Q.   You would have known the number of hours that you worked so 
    51        you --- 
    52        A.  I did, yes. 
    53
    54   Q.   -- would have spotted it at once, would you not, if you
    55        were quite -----
    56        A.  I would spot it because I am someone that is very money
    57        conscious.
    58
    59   Q.   And you never did spot it?
    60        A.  No.