Day 303 - 19 Nov 96 - Page 32


     
     1
     2        I do not know if that might be ----
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you want to take your break then?  Five
     5        minutes.  Do you want longer than that or is that enough?
     6
     7   MR. MORRIS:  No, that is enough.
     8
     9                       (Short adjournment)
    10
    11   MR. MORRIS:  Very quickly going through the Colchester Store of
    12        the Year, we would say it is significant because it was
    13        clearly, as Mr. Nicholson said, an exemplary store and it
    14        takes time to achieve that.  I think that was recognised -
    15        I cannot remember which witnesses now.  It was not
    16        exemplary for one or two months, it must have been
    17        exemplary over a period, including that whole year and no
    18        doubt the years either side, in McDonald's terms.
    19
    20        Whereas the reality, as Mr. Simon Gibney, who was a manager
    21        at the store, said, that they were watering down products,
    22        working amidst sewage on a couple of occasions, illegal
    23        hours are being worked by under 18s, there was an obsession
    24        with cutting labour costs to the bone, and fiddling of time
    25        cards.  These are all standard things I am sure you have
    26        noted.
    27
    28        As we heard, there was also formation of a grouping which
    29        the staff called the McDonald's Freedom Fighters which the
    30        staff considered a fairly lighthearted thing but it started
    31        off in terms of defence of their rights to use a crew room
    32        that had been closed by the management, but in fact the
    33        Company took it very seriously and wanted to weed people
    34        out that were involved.
    35
    36        Siamak Alimi -- we called a number of witnesses from this
    37        store and McDonald's countered with their own current
    38        employees of managerial grade, which we would say obviously
    39        there can be some use in that kind of testimony but it
    40        cannot have the weight of someone who is independent --
    41        Siamak Alimi told of high pressure of work, long hours
    42        including 20 hour shifts, with few breaks and low pay,
    43        workers under 18 working illegal hours, and there were
    44        threats of the sack for joining a union or protests against
    45        in-store conditions.  And we have heard about how he worked
    46        a substantial amount of overtime without being paid for
    47        it.
    48
    49        Kevin Harrison worked at the store in 1986/87, and also at
    50        Ipswich, up to the level of Assistant Manager.  He told the
    51        court how pressures to reduce costs all round led to the
    52        secret cutting of food servings and using out-of-date
    53        food.  He criticised the managers use of hustle to get work
    54        speeded up.  McDonald's, he stated, "is a very pressurised
    55        environment and no where else are you expected to work at
    56        that level for such long periods of time".  That is from
    57        his statement.
    58
    59        He complained that managers were encouraged to use their
    60        power over work schedules to discriminate and to foster

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