Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 14
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2 MR. RAMPTON: That means the sort of inference which one might
3 draw if the figures were reversed and two-thirds of the
4 hourly paid workers were full-timers simply cannot be
5 drawn, and if 66 percent of the hourly paid workers were
6 full-timers, and the turnover was 100 percent plus, then
7 one would quite legitimately say to oneself: well, if all
8 those full-time workers are leaving in such quantities
9 during the course of a single year, then there must be
10 something wrong. The same does not follow if one is
11 looking at young part-timers, for a number of reasons which
12 I will just mention briefly, if I may.
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14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, please.
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16 MR. RAMPTON: I am not going to make a great speech about it.
17 There are some points which are peculiar to under-21
18 part-timers. The first is that it is quite obvious,
19 whether they are under 21 or under 50, or whatever, such
20 people do not depend on McDonald's for their livelihood.
21 People who work six, 10, 15, 20 hours a week are not
22 depending on McDonald's for their livelihood; and that
23 applies at all ages to part-timers.
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25 So far as the youngsters are concerned, of course --
26 I think as your Lordship has pointed out a number of times
27 when the witnesses were giving evidence -- many of those
28 people will be living at home or in student accommodation;
29 and this bears more on pay than turnover, that you cannot
30 really separate pay and conditions from turnover at any
31 stage; and many will be getting some financial help from
32 their parents. One does not know how many.
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34 Next, by very reason of the fact that they are part-timers,
35 one can assume -- one must assume -- that the majority of
36 them (perhaps almost all of them) are likely to have some
37 other occupation. Now, that might be studying or whatever
38 during the day, or it might be, for example, working in a
39 supermarket during shopping hours, or in a garage or in a
40 pub, or something like that.
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42 So far as turnover is concerned, what that, we submit,
43 suggests is this, that for those young people working
44 anything between maybe five and 20 hours a week at
45 McDonald's, that pattern of works fits in well enough for
46 their lives for a short time. When they get to the stage
47 of life where they are thinking of a permanent career,
48 perhaps of getting married, perhaps putting a payment down
49 on their first house, then completely different
50 considerations apply. With the youngsters, it is simply a
51 way of earning some extra money for a short time in their
52 lives, which means it is wholly credible that they will be
53 staying for three months, six months, or even nine months
54 in the course of a year, leaving because they do not want
55 to work there any more, perhaps, or because they have gone
56 to college, or perhaps because they have gone rail trekking
57 in Europe, or perhaps they have found a permanent full-time
58 job. It may be that some will come back the next year and
59 that some will not, depending on their circumstances. But
60 that does not matter so far as turnover is concerned,
