Day 214 - 01 02 96 - Page 69

 
 

                                                                  DAY 214
 
                                           DAVID ROBERTS, Cross-examined:
 
 
 
     1   Q.   Right.  I do not think I have any further questions.
     2
     3   MR. MORRIS:  No further questions.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Thank you.
     6
     7                   Re-examined by MR. RAMPTON, Q.C.
     8
     9   Q.   Only one thing Mr. Roberts, you told us in your
    10        evidence-in-chief that, so far as you could work out, you
    11        hired about 44 new people in the first month or so when you
    12        took over.  Then when you were cross-examined by Ms. Steel,
    13        you accepted that even despite that for the early part of
    14        your time as Manager you still felt you were somewhat
    15        undercrewed or understaffed?
    16        A.  Yes.
    17
    18   Q.   Can I ask you to look at the Heathrow file, please, at page
    19        100?  This is for the period 9th to 22nd October 94.
    20        A.  Yes.
    21
    22   Q.   When you had been there for just over three months, yes,
    23        and then look over the page at 101 -- I hope I have added
    24        it up correctly -- I count in that long list of names 29
    25        new starters, yes?  Do you remember why at that period, the
    26        beginning of October, the middle of October 1994, you took
    27        on another 29 people?
    28        A.  Firstly, because I wanted to increase the numbers to
    29        what the numbers set by Semir Khazna and, secondly, October
    30        is a usually a good month for hiring because we have to
    31        hire for December.
    32
    33   Q.   Yes, so that is two reasons, because of Christmas?
    34        A.  Yes.
    35
    36   Q.   I am just wondering whether during the period of the three
    37        months or so that you had been there, you might also have
    38        lost some people from the payroll?
    39        A.  The crew originally had zero hours on the -- when
    40        I first took over, as I said, I did not know who they
    41        were.  I had never met them.  We had to send out absence
    42        letters and I had to find out who they were, and then they
    43        would terminate it later on, but I could not replace them
    44        straightaway if I thought they might be coming back.  But
    45        when I had time to actually go through and check out who
    46        these people were or were not, then that is when I found
    47        out the true situation that I was in.
    48
    49   Q.   They were names but not workers?
    50        A.  There was people that had worked there previously but, 
    51        for some reason, they were somewhere else, or they may have 
    52        left, for whatever reason. 
    53
    54   Q.   But of the people who worked there, which vary between 130
    55        and 105 or 101 during these first three months, were you
    56        conscious of losing any significant number of those people?
    57        A.  Yes, I was.  Yes, I did lose people from that.
    58
    59   Q.   The actual workers?
    60        A.  Yes.
 
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