Day 195 - 04 Dec 95 - Page 11
1 the Manager offered the boy promotion or some other
2 incentive in order to make him give up the idea of
3 studying.
4
5 Prior to his meeting with the Manager, the boy had said how
6 pleased his parents were that he was going to go back and
7 do his 'A' levels. They had even offered him all sorts of
8 gifts as incentives to achievement. However, after the
9 meeting with management, the boy started doing very long
10 hours at McDonald's and had lost all interest in studying.
11 The boy's name was Adrian" -- that should be "Brett"?
12 A. That is correct; that should be Brett.
13
14 Q. "Where an employee, under the age of 18, had to work beyond
15 the legally permitted hour, the employee had to clock out
16 at the legal time and then management would write on
17 his/her card something like 'bonus-X hours', or simply 'add
18 on X'. Obviously, there was no mention on the card of the
19 hours worked for this bonus or extra money. However,
20 occasionally under 18 year olds did work the extra hours
21 but there was no record made of them on the clock card, so
22 that when it came to pay-day they could not prove that they
23 had worked the extra hours and therefore did not get paid
24 for them. I think that the failure to write the extra
25 hours down on the clock card was accidental.
26
27 The position with regard to employees receiving a break,
28 where they worked beyond their scheduled hours, was
29 unregulated and often unfair. Once the scheduled shift
30 time had passed and it was clear that we were going to be
31 there several more hours, the crew members used to have a
32 quick break, but only if the Manager was not around to
33 see. We had to take our break in secret. Once the
34 official shift was over, we could not take a break unless
35 management agreed. Management would only generally give
36 breaks if they were feeling generous. However, most times
37 crew managed to get a 10 or 20 minute break, depending on
38 which Manager was on duty. There was no certainty about
39 this because it was entirely at the Manager's discretion.
40
41 When I was on the 4.00 p.m. until 12.00 p.m. shift I might
42 often get sent on my break at 5 p.m. with no break
43 thereafter. I believe that this was illegal since
44 employees have to have a break every four hours.
45 Certainly, all crew breaks were over by 7 p.m. on the
46 evening shift. Nobody ever went after that time and most
47 were sent for their breaks before 6.00 p.m." When you say
48 "nobody", do you actually mean never ever?
49 A. I mean in 99.9 per cent of the cases; it might have
50 been an occasional day where somebody was sent after that
51 time, but in most cases definitely not.
52
53 Q. "I was in a good position to know how much break people
54 were given because as a training squad I was one of the
55 people in charge of sending people on their breaks and
56 rotating staff accordingly. I was under specific
57 instructions from management that I had to send people on
58 their breaks before the store became busy." Do you know
59 which management that was or can you remember which
60 management that was?
