Day 214 - 01 02 96 - Page 13

 
 

                                                                  DAY 214
 
                                                 DAVID ROBERTS, Examined:
 
 
 
     1
     2   Q.   When you arrived, I think you told us in your statement,
     3        you were conscious that there had been some under-18s
     4        working past midnight?
     5        A.  I had been told by Kim Moffatt about the situation.
     6        I had no specific examples of when it happened or who had
     7        done it, or who it happened to, but she made me aware of
     8        the problem.
     9
    10   Q.   Yes?
    11        A.  But when I took over the restaurant, I actually did the
    12        schedule myself, the crew schedule.
    13
    14   Q.   I was going to ask you how, if you are a responsible
    15        Manager, you can prevent it from happening.  Assuming you
    16        are not in the restaurant at midnight, how do you stop
    17        somebody who is  bit short-handed making an 18 year old,
    18        persuading an 18 year old, an under 18, to work on past
    19        midnight?
    20        A.  You cannot physically prevent them from doing that.
    21        You can put systems in place whereby the scheduling -- they
    22        would not be scheduled to an hour near there, so it could
    23        not happen.  Obviously, the best thing to do is to make
    24        sure that there are enough staff working and there are
    25        enough staff available to work those hours, and the staff
    26        that are available to work those hours are the correct age.
    27
    28   Q.   So when you took over the scheduling, what was the latest
    29        that you would ever schedule an under 18?
    30        A.  They would be scheduled until 12 o'clock.
    31
    32   Q.   Until 12 o'clock?
    33        A.  Yes.  But the people that were scheduled were not
    34        people who were allowed to work past .....
    35
    36   Q.   So there would be no need for the shift running Manager to
    37        persuade any under 18 to stay on; that was the idea of it?
    38        A.  When the schedule -- when I was doing the schedule, we
    39        did not have to schedule people like that.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let me make sure I understand.  When you did
    42        the schedule, you did schedule under-18s until
    43        12.00 midnight?
    44        A.  To 12.00 midnight, yes, or quarter to 12.00.
    45
    46   Q.   But then I did not understand what you went on to say after
    47        that?
    48        A.  People -----
    49
    50   Q.   Just pause a moment, and then you can tell me again. 
    51        A.  Sorry.  People that were not available to work past 
    52        12 o'clock were not scheduled until -- they were scheduled 
    53        to 11.00, half past 11.00, and we replaced -- because we
    54        hired new people, they were obviously because they were
    55        over 18, they were the ones who were scheduled -----
    56
    57   Q.   You see, that is why I picked you up on it because
    58        I thought you scheduled under-18s to midnight or quarter to
    59        12.00?
    60        A.  Initially.
 
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