Day 152 - 11 Jul 95 - Page 20

     
     1
     2   Q.   If only ten of those 62 worked 20 hours a week you would
     3        have 140 hours left for 52 part-timers on your payroll.
     4
     5   MR. MORRIS:  42.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  140 for 52 part-timers on your payroll.  So
     8        they are working on average two and a half hours a week.
     9        Again, it is suggested -- I am not doing this to challenge
    10        you.
    11        A.  No, sir, I understand.
    12
    13   Q.   But what Ms. Steel is saying, the conclusion she is
    14        inviting is that you have a lot of people on the payroll
    15        who, from week to week, are doing precious little hours or
    16        are not performing at all?
    17        A.  That is not the case.  Again, I know if we take a very
    18        basic premise that a full-timer is at 39, but in terms of a
    19        part-timer, maybe only on a Tuesday -- I know we are going
    20        back into numbers here again -- but in terms of the way
         I would look at it from 12 years of experience it would
    22        suggest that I could allocate sufficient hours for these
    23        people; otherwise, I think, if they only had two hours
    24        I would presume maybe they would not feel it worth
    25        working.  I certainly do not think that there is any sort
    26        of need to say that there are maybe 10 or 15 people who are
    27        kept on the payroll.  That would be in nobody's interests.
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I suggest is you pause there and leave
    30        your cross-examination there because your point has been
    31        put there.  I have taken your point on board.  Experience
    32        has taught me that when one starts doing arithmetic
    33        impromptu, sometimes it turns out to be a good point and
    34        sometimes there is an explanation that no-one actually ever
    35        thinks of, and while it is being canvassed impromptu in
    36        court, so you have put your point and the arithmetic has
    37        been put.  I suggest we just wait and see what happens, but
    38        I do not think you have to ask any more questions at this
    39        stage about it.
    40
    MS. STEEL:   Would you admit that there were any people
    42        remaining on the payroll for considerable periods of time
    43        that were not working on a regular basis, maybe working an
    44        occasional Saturday, you know, when you had somebody not
    45        turning up, you had got a reserve pool of people?
    46        A.  In Leicester, no, not to my recollection.
    47
    48   Q.   Just going back to Colchester and Clacton, you were saying
    49        something about not taking a whole load of people on in a
    50        rush; you try to make it a regular build up? 
    51        A.  For Clacton, yes. 
    52 
    53   Q.   Clacton.  That was not for Colchester?
    54        A.  No, it was not.  It was Clacton in anticipation of
    55        summer business, that is right, but not Colchester.
    56
    57   Q.   OK.  So at Colchester sometimes you took on five, 10 people
    58        on one week and then ---
    59        A.  No, absolutely not.
    60