Day 119 - 02 May 95 - Page 53


     
     1   MR. MORRIS:  OK.  So, if I worked for the Company and I wanted
     2        to go to the local paper and say:  "Conditions at
     3        McDonald's are terrible, they boss you around, the pay is
     4        no good, the food handling is unsafe", those would be the
     5        kind of things which this is meant to -----
     6        A.  I would say that most certainly is the kind of things
     7        it is meant to -----
     8
     9   Q.   If somebody went to the press and said:  "In my store
    10        people under the age of 18" -- this is when it was the law
    11        in that period -- "are working illegal hours, past
    12        midnight", or something like that, that is the kind of
    13        thing?
    14        A.  No, I do not -- I think that would require
    15        investigation.  If we found it was substantiated, it would
    16        not be the person who went to the press who would be dealt
    17        with, although they might be reprimanded for it, but it
    18        would be the manager that permitted it to happen.
    19
    20   MS. STEEL:   Why should any member of staff be reprimanded for
    21        saying something like that to a newspaper?
    22        A.  Well,  because there are rules and that is one of the
    23        rules; you do not go to newspapers.  There is an internal
    24        procedure for dealing with complaints of that nature.
    25
    26   Q.   So, even if it is to alert the public and other people, if
    27        it was a local newspaper, who might be thinking of working
    28        at McDonald's that there was something illegal going on
    29        there and management at the store was not concerned about
    30        it, you do not think, or the Company does not think, the
    31        crew would be justified in going to the local paper about
    32        something like that?
    33        A.  I think there is a grievance procedure open to them
    34        that goes beyond the local store management.  I hazarded a
    35        suggestion that they would be reprimanded.  I think
    36        something would certainly be said to them.  There is a
    37        procedure they can follow that is laid down in their
    38        Handbook and that is the procedure they should follow.  If
    39        they get no satisfactory redress at local store management
    40        level, they go to their supervisor.  Then you follow the
    41        procedure set out in the Crew Handbook.
    42
    43   Q.   So you think that the Company would be justified in
    44        reprimanding them for reporting such a thing as breaking
    45        the law to the local paper?
    46        A.  Well, it depends upon the circumstances.  It depends
    47        upon how grievous the law has been broken.  It depends upon
    48        circumstances.  You look at every case on its own merit.
    49
    50   MR. MORRIS:  Do McDonald's have any monitoring of grievances, 
    51        what the main grievances are?  When I say "monitoring", 
    52        I think we have a misunderstanding on this word -- any 
    53        compiling of information or statistics ---
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You want to know whether ---
    56
    57   MR. MORRIS:  -- which establish trends -----
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  -- they keep records so that they can see
    60        there is a particular bone of dissatisfaction or

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