Day 195 - 04 Dec 95 - Page 11


     
     1        the Manager offered the boy promotion or some other
     2        incentive in order to make him give up the idea of
     3        studying.
     4
     5        Prior to his meeting with the Manager, the boy had said how
     6        pleased his parents were that he was going to go back and
     7        do his 'A' levels.  They had even offered him all sorts of
     8        gifts as incentives to achievement.  However, after the
     9        meeting with management, the boy started doing very long
    10        hours at McDonald's and had lost all interest in studying.
    11        The boy's name was Adrian" -- that should be "Brett"?
    12        A.  That is correct; that should be Brett.
    13
    14   Q.   "Where an employee, under the age of 18, had to work beyond
    15        the legally permitted hour, the employee had to clock out
    16        at the legal time and then management would write on
    17        his/her card something like 'bonus-X hours', or simply 'add
    18        on X'.  Obviously, there was no mention on the card of the
    19        hours worked for this bonus or extra money.  However,
    20        occasionally under 18 year olds did work the extra hours
    21        but there was no record made of them on the clock card, so
    22        that when it came to pay-day they could not prove that they
    23        had worked the extra hours and therefore did not get paid
    24        for them.  I think that the failure to write the extra
    25        hours down on the clock card was accidental.
    26
    27        The position with regard to employees receiving a break,
    28        where they worked beyond their scheduled hours, was
    29        unregulated and often unfair.  Once the scheduled shift
    30        time had passed and it was clear that we were going to be
    31        there several more hours, the crew members used to have a
    32        quick break, but only if the Manager was not around to
    33        see.  We had to take our break in secret.  Once the
    34        official shift was over, we could not take a break unless
    35        management agreed.  Management would only generally give
    36        breaks if they were feeling generous.  However, most times
    37        crew managed to get a 10 or 20 minute break, depending on
    38        which Manager was on duty.  There was no certainty about
    39        this because it was entirely at the Manager's discretion.
    40
    41        When I was on the 4.00 p.m. until 12.00 p.m. shift I might
    42        often get sent on my break at 5 p.m. with no break
    43        thereafter.  I believe that this was illegal since
    44        employees have to have a break every four hours.
    45        Certainly, all crew breaks were over by 7 p.m. on the
    46        evening shift.  Nobody ever went after that time and most
    47        were sent for their breaks before 6.00 p.m."  When you say
    48        "nobody", do you actually mean never ever?
    49        A.  I mean in 99.9 per cent of the cases; it might have
    50        been an occasional day where somebody was sent after that 
    51        time, but in most cases definitely not. 
    52 
    53   Q.   "I was in a good position to know how much break people
    54        were given because as a training squad I was one of the
    55        people in charge of sending people on their breaks and
    56        rotating staff accordingly.  I was under specific
    57        instructions from management that I had to send people on
    58        their breaks before the store became busy."  Do you know
    59        which management that was or can you remember which
    60        management that was?

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