Day 195 - 04 Dec 95 - Page 14
1
2 When I working last winter in the extremely cold weather
3 conditions, the working temperature indoors was measured by
4 the staff and was shown to be six degrees centigrade inside
5 the grill area. So for as I am aware, the law requires
6 that the temperature should be a minimum of 16 degrees
7 centigrade. It was impossible to work in these
8 conditions. Members of staff were complaining about the
9 problem and, by way of answer, were given a T-shirt to wear
10 underneath their clothing.
11
12 I and several other crew members tried to organise a staff
13 walk-out because it was so unpleasant to work in these
14 conditions. This was not successful. Afterwards, the ring
15 leaders of this little revolt were penalised for their
16 activities. We were given warnings regarding our
17 behaviour, shouted at and generally given bad jobs, e.g.
18 clean the toilets." Who was it that gave you the
19 warnings?
20 A. I do not remember exactly who it was, but it could very
21 well have been Trudie Jones.
22
23 Q. "Life was made unpleasant for us. I was only in the store
24 one day out of several in which these temperature
25 conditions prevailed; this was because I was on holiday the
26 rest of time. However, even that one day of work was so
27 unpleasant that I had to try to do something about it. The
28 reason for this temperature problem was that the air
29 conditioning was faulty in the store. Management refused
30 to repair it.
31
32 I was generally not pushed around at the store as much as
33 other staff. I made it quite clear from early on that
34 I knew my rights and was not at all interested in
35 promotion. Partly due to my personal friendly relations
36 with certain Managers and Floor Managers and partly because
37 of my knowledge about my rights, I generally got on well
38 with Deputy Managers and was not picked on as often as the
39 others and generally was not given much cause to complain".
40 A. Can I correct the last sentence which is inaccurate?
41 It should really read: "... not given as much cause to
42 complain", not "much cause".
43
44 Q. As other crew members, you mean?
45 A. As other crew members, that is right.
46
47 Q. You signed this statement and it is dated 25th March 1988.
48 Apart from the corrections that you have made this morning,
49 do you stand by what is written there as the truth of your
50 experience as working at McDonald's?
51 A. Absolutely, yes.
52
53 Q. There is then a continuation statement of Siamak Alimi.
54 Can you just tell us, do you know how this was made or how
55 this came about?
56 A. I do not remember the exact circumstances, but I think
57 when I made the statement -- I made this statement to
58 different lawyers, solicitors.
59
60 Q. To the first statement?
