Day 155 - 14 Jul 95 - Page 09

     
     1        the ship into sea-worthy condition?
     2        A.  I had a lot of Managers that basically needed a lot
     3        more training.  There was no discipline in the restaurant,
     4        there was not enough staff, the scheduling practices were
     5        not very good, there was not enough staff on a day-to-day
     6        basis.  The morale of the store was very, very poor.
     7        Things like performance reviews, training, etc. etc., in
     8        effect, was sort of non-existent.  You know, all these
     9        things that become a priority as soon as I took over.
    10
    11   Q.   You have read, I expect, a statement written, or at any
    12        rate signed, by somebody called Dave McGee, have you?
    13        A.  Yes.
    14
    15   Q.   He tells us, he is not presently proposed as a live witness
    16        in this court, that he started at the Seven Sisters
    17        restaurant in November 1986 and that he finished in July
    18        1987.  Do you remember him?
    19        A.  No, I do not.
    20
    Q.   By November 1986 which was, roughly speaking, six months
    22        after you took over -- sorry, that is my mistake, it is bit
    23        longer than that, 10 months after you started in February
    24        -- what sort of shape was the store in by the time
    25        Mr. McGee arrived in November 1986?
    26        A.  I basically had all my systems in place.  I had now
    27        recruited a lot more crew sufficient to handle all types of
    28        volume.  Being November as well I also had to increase
    29        quite a lot of crew for the Christmas period, so I would
    30        say that I was 90 per cent of the way there to where
    31        I wanted to be.  It was just fine tuning now.
    32
    33   Q.   I would like to ask you a little bit about morale.  You
    34        said morale was very bad when you got there.  What methods
    35        have you used in your time as a Store Manager and, in
    36        particular, at Seven Sisters, to ensure that there is a
    37        good morale inside the restaurant amongst the workforce?
    38        A.  OK.  First of all, if you are going to employ new
    39        staff, if they have been there a month, two months and they
    40        are doing an excellent job they should be rewarded, so
         I would basically do a probationary performance review
    42        after three weeks in which they would get a pay rise.
    43
    44        Training in the store was very, very poor so I arranged for
    45        some well trained Managers to actually start training
    46        groups of people, basically to improve their morale in that
    47        sense that could do the job.  Many of them were trying to
    48        the job but could not.  I arranged a few things like nights
    49        out for the crew, social events, things like that,
    50        performance reviews.  I made a strict policy to all the 
    51        managers that I wanted the performance reviews on time 
    52        every time.  Just generally talking to the crew, because a 
    53        lot of the things, as I said earlier, I was very fortunate
    54        enough to work for a Manager that spoke to me, trained me,
    55        rewarded me, so that is the only way I know.
    56
    57   Q.   If a crew member had a grouse or a grumble about something
    58        or other, and, presumably, he might raise it at a rap
    59        session, but would they approach you personally?
    60        A.  Yes, because I would say that the majority of the crew