Day 125 - 12 May 95 - Page 21
1 During the peak periods of the day it can be.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What do you want to do? Are you thinking
4 about something specifically, or just thinking what you
5 have to ask about?
6
7 MS. STEEL: Yes, I am going through to ask -----
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just sit down for a moment and see where you
10 are. Can Mr. Morris ask some questions while you consider
11 that? You can come back to it. It is obviously convenient
12 if you finish with one particular document, but it is not
13 the end of the world if you leave it and come back to it
14 later.
15
16 MS. STEEL: Just one thing, in America, the employment of the
17 crew members is -- you described it as -- "at will"; that
18 is correct, is it not?
19 A. At will?
20
21 Q. Yes. Basically you can sack them without any notice. They
22 have not any right to stay on. You can just terminate
23 their employment at any time?
24 A. I would not say that is a fair statement. We would
25 not, knowingly, terminate an employee without good reason,
26 unless there was a fall-off in business. If the sales of
27 the restaurant dropped precipitously, then obviously we
28 would have to adjust, make some adjustments, adjust the
29 size of staff. So we would, unfortunately, have to
30 terminate employees because of that.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Terminate their employment?
33 A. With us in that particular store, but the fact they are
34 good employees, we would certainly give them reference to
35 another restaurant. That does not happen that often but it
36 has happened, and, as I mentioned earlier, their skills are
37 translatable, so there are other McDonald's restaurants in
38 the area that would happily pick up those employees if
39 something unfortunate had happened like that.
40
41 MS. STEEL: But in terms of notice, they are not entitled to any
42 notice, are they? The crew members are not entitled to any
43 notice? You can terminate them there and then?
44 A. Usually -- if you are referring to the example -----
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You are not being asked at the moment what
47 the normal practice is. It may come to that, but that is
48 not what you are being asked at the moment. It is whether
49 a crew member is entitled to any notice, be it a week, 14
50 days, whatever. So that they either work through that
51 notice, continuing to get paid, or if they are asked,
52 nevertheless, to leave, they are entitled to be paid for
53 that period.
54 A. It is my recollection that no notice is required.
55
56 MS. STEEL: I am not quite clear what rights any of the
57 employees have. Presumably the terms of employment are
58 what is set out in the Crew Handbook?
59 A. That is correct.
60
