Day 124 - 10 May 95 - Page 26
1 vary from person to person to some extent?
2 A. That is correct. That is exactly right.
3
4 Q. So you have to tune it into the new candidate?
5 A. That is right.
6
7 MS. STEEL: Questions like: "What do you think of McDonald's?
8 Do you enjoy working for them?" Things like that?
9 A. They were not on the exam. Those questions were not on
10 the exam.
11
12 Q. If you were not asking direct questions about what
13 employees thought about trade unions and their attitude to
14 the Company, you were trying to glean that kind of
15 information?
16 A. Absolutely not.
17
18 MR. MORRIS: The lie detector test was something which any
19 Manager of McDonald's could authorise at that time; whether
20 they did or they did not, it was something which they had
21 the power to authorise?
22 A. No. That is not a fair characterisation. The Manager
23 would not be the one that would have the authority to make
24 that decision. The owner or operator or franchisee would
25 authorise the use of the polygraph test and, in the case of
26 Company restaurants, it would be the Regional Manager or
27 Officer in charge of that particular area that would do
28 that.
29
30 Q. But any crew person would be aware that the management,
31 whether it was the owner/operator or the Company, had that
32 power somewhere?
33 A. No, that is not -- that is not true. As I indicated
34 earlier, there were many franchisees as well as some areas
35 of the Company that did not use polygraph tests. So they
36 would not necessarily have knowledge that they would be
37 given.
38
39 Q. What was the reason that lie detector tests were made
40 illegal or banned or, effectively, ruled out by the
41 authorities?
42 A. They are still being used.
43
44 Q. You said that when you knew that it was going to be ruled
45 out, the Company, basically, quite prudently stopped doing
46 it.
47 A. Well, issues were raised around the admissibility of
48 tests in the use in court where people had committed
49 offences, and we wanted to prosecute the individual for
50 dishonest acts. The use of those tests became inadmissible
51 in court. The fact of the matter is that they are being
52 used still with the permission of the individual. As
53 I recall, the law changed where an individual did not have
54 to take it ---
55
56 Q. Right, I see.
57 A. -- did not have to take a polygraph test, and the fact
58 that the individual refused to take it was not grounds for
59 the employer not to hire the individual nor ---
60
