Day 197 - 07 Dec 95 - Page 17

     
       1      fixed straightaway and would be fixed at a later date.
       2
       3 Q.   Then it says:  "Food control has been good, but not
       4      outstanding.  Find out the reasons why and take action!
       5      This area has proved to be your strength, make sure it
       6      remains so".  So, Mark Davis was saying that food control
       7      was one of your strengths?
       8      A.  At that time, yes.
       9
      10 Q.   Page 57, there are a few comments actually about Adrian
      11      Brett -- I will not refer the court to all of them  -- but
      12      it was your impression that he was marked out, was it, as
      13      a very positive Manager?
      14      A.  At that time he was a bit of what we call a rising
      15      star.  He had come from crew, was going through the
      16      management scales and was, sort of, like being groomed to
      17      do good things.
      18
      19 Q.   Sorry, that was a leading question, but it is actually
      20      mentioned about four times in the coming pages.
      21
      22 MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That was a fairly harmless leading
      23      question.  I will not say any more; you know what I mean.
      24
      25 MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  (To the witness):  Then "Conclusion", this
      26      is 1990, this is the year before you resigned:
      27      "Conclusion, this could be your most successful year
      28      yet.  All the signs are there with improvement in most
      29      areas".  Then you are asked to improve, basically, yes?
      30      A.  That is correct, yes.
      31
      32 Q.   Then on the next page 58, it says at the bottom of the
      33      page:  "The outstanding achievers will receive between 10
      34      to 15 per cent pay rise, excellent between eight to per
      35      cent.  At the moment you are in the eight to nine per cent
      36      bracket after six months".  So, you were in the
      37      "excellent" bracket?
      38      A.  At that time things were going extremely well and I
      39      felt I was a very competent manager at that time.
      40
      41 Q.   On page 59 -- this is the PR of November 1990 -- there is
      42      a comment in the middle of the page:  "You still leave
      43      yourself wide open where drinks are concerned".  What does
      44      that refer to?
      45      A.  It relates to what we have talked about earlier, about
      46      things being watered down and that type of thing, where,
      47      as far as Supervisor in the store level, I would not
      48      actual change anything on a day-to-day basis, so that if
      49      anyone came down on a stock visit unannounced, I could
      50      have been caught out on what we were doing.
      51
      52 Q.   Mark Davies recognised that in this PR, did he? 
      53      A.  Well, he was confirming that they knew it was going on
      54      then, yes.
      55
      56 Q.   Yes.  At the top of the page it says you have had a poor
      57      six months.  How were you feeling at this time?
      58      A.  At that time, as I said, previous to this, I had been
      59      doing very, very well, but the extra work and the pressure
      60      it was putting on, I was finding quite hard at that