Day 209 - 25 Jan 96 - Page 10
1 could have taken me a while to get round to it.
2
3 Q. I will read it through. If there is anything that is
4 incorrect in it, please stop me as I am reading it out.
5 A. Right.
6
7 Q. I mean, obviously if it needs clarification, then please
8 stop me and say so.
9
10 "Employment. Scheduling. It was common practice for the
11 schedule to be used as a tool of discipline by senior
12 management within the store. For example, I witnessed on
13 several occasions Managers requesting the scheduling
14 Manager to reduce the hours or give predominantly unsocial
15 hours to employees whom they did not consider to perform
16 well. These requests were sometimes made in Managers'
17 meetings called partly to discuss unsatisfactory
18 employees.
19
20 'Hit lists' were sometimes completed of employees that
21 needed improvement. This improvement was sought by a
22 process of retraining which often meant continual
23 harassment on the job for Managers, as well as incentives
24 such as less or unsocial hours which would improve as the
25 employee did so. This targeting often led to people
26 resigning partly because of the pressure and partly due to
27 lack of money resulting from reduced hours. I believe it
28 was the general perception that it was easier to make
29 someone resign rather than sack them, which required poor
30 performance reviews or several warnings".
31 A. Can I come in there?
32
33 Q. "(Extra paperwork)" yes, please.
34 A. What I am saying there is, because it is easier to --
35 because the place was so disorganised, we used to try to
36 sack people and certain forms had not been filled in, they
37 would have missed PRs, so they could not be sacked, so you
38 would force them to leave. Just because paperwork was
39 never up to date and if people's PRs were late, you could
40 not blame them for not performing well because they had not
41 been given a performance review on time.
42
43 So it was easier to say or try and improve these people,
44 but in saying you are trying to improve these people what,
45 in reality, happens is the Managers on the floor downstairs
46 are told to give this person OCLs. So you are permanently
47 critiquing them, so you are permanently telling them what
48 they are doing wrong, and this can go on all day, plus the
49 scheduling Manager, you know, is not inclined to give them
50 social shifts, I would call them. They are more inclined
51 to give them closes just because closes are less popular
52 shifts, more difficult to fill.
53
54 Q. I will continue.
55 A. Yes.
56
57 Q. Thank you for that. "In respect of the schedule, to my
58 knowledge, there was no system in place in the store for
59 checking inconsistencies, so Managers had a free rein to do
60 as they wished".
