Day 002 - 29 Jun 94 - Page 41


     
     1        40-hour week, 35-hour week, like I had when I was employed
              in the Post Office -- at least you knew what you were
     2        going to get each week in a pay packet even if it was not
              great -- but the amount of hours worked is in the hands of
     3        management.  Of course, you cannot get Social Security.
              If they decide you only get 18 hours at McDonald's, you
     4        only take home, whatever it is, £55.
 
     5        So, really the whole area of employees' rights and
              conditions -- the people that are most expert who deal
     6        with that are the ex staff themselves.  We will be calling
              30 ex-staff.
     7
              As far as conditions, it is our case that although
     8        McDonald's may or may not have policies or even documents
              identifying exactly what the workers should do at any one
     9        second, in terms of keeping, you know, the floors clean
              and not slippery, the procedures to follow, not to get
    10        accidents, but when it comes to raking in the money at the
              important times of the day a lot of the procedures
    11        automatically get thrown out of the window.  That is a
              time when a lot of the accidents, burns and slips, shocks
    12        from equipment happen in their stores.  Really, this is
              the reality behind the image when people buy their
    13        burgers; somebody is working their guts out in order to
              increase the profits of the McDonald's Corporation.
    14
              If I can just say something that we feel is very
    15        important.  McDonald's have said that this is all lies of
              course.  They are under an obligation, in any event, we
    16        believe (although we have failed up to now) to provide
              accident statistics, accidents records, which will show if
    17        they take accidents seriously and how many accidents
              occur.
    18
              Mr. Rampton said: What does eight people prove, we have
    19        eight witnesses who have had an accident?  What he does
              not say, of course, is that within five minutes people
    20        could phone up Headquarters and ask for their statistics
              and say: Well, in the interests of truth, we know now that
    21        17,000 accidents were reported last year from McDonald's
              workers or 1500, or whatever the figure is.  We already
    22        have documents from them which show they have statistics;
              they have not released the statistics.  So again, now
    23        because of the counterclaim, they are under a burden of
              proof and also to reveal, or release the statistics they
    24        do have.  It would be useful to get that done as soon as
              possible so we will not have to recall witnesses to put it
    25        to them when we have the information finally.  Otherwise,
              the trial will not be a fair trial, the truth will not be 
    26        established at the end, and it will not help anybody at 
              the end of the day if the truth is not genuinely 
    27        established.
 
    28        So far as trade unions are concerned, again like all these
              points, a policy -- it says:  "McDonald's have a policy of
    29        preventing unionisation by getting rid of pro-union
              workers".  A policy is not just directives or even written
    30        statements, which we believe McDonald's are very careful
              now what they put in writing, even in internal material.

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