Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 27
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2 MR. MORRIS: Right. I was pointing out that the over 96 hours
3 in a fortnight means they must have worked over 48 hours
4 each in one of those weeks, and for under 18s to work over
5 48 in a week was actually illegal. That was previously, up
6 until whenever those laws were abolished, and I am still a
7 bit unclear exactly when.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I suppose they could have worked 48 in each,
10 but you say the likelihood is that they would have worked a
11 bit more?
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13 MR. MORRIS: Yes. Of course it is likely that other people
14 would work 50 hours one week and 30 the next and not come
15 out at over 96 hours, which, conveniently for McDonald's,
16 does conceal breaches of policy and law. Whether it is
17 deliberate or not, their system does guarantee that
18 breaches cannot be monitored effectively. So that goes for
19 quite a lot of McDonald's statistics. It is very hard to
20 find the information you want from the statistics.
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22 Can I say something else about the overtime? Actually,
23 this is a very important point which I forgot to make
24 yesterday. That McDonald's do not pay for their meal
25 breaks, but the people are there at work, even if they are
26 in the crew room or something, with their small breaks, if
27 they get them, but that is not taken into consideration,
28 which it should be, in the amount of time people work.
29 When somebody works 39 hours a week, they have actually
30 been at work for 43, 44, 45 hours that week. So this is
31 another ingredient in this issue, which is not only are
32 they not being paid for their break time, which is bad
33 enough, but they are also not being -- it is not being
34 recognised as time at-----
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is there any difference between McDonald's
37 and anywhere else there?
38
39 MR. MORRIS: I would say so, yes. I would say that is part of
40 your working week, whenever you are at work.
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42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I mean, I have little or no evidence about
43 what happens in other cases where people, say, get an hour
44 some time around the middle of their shift and they either
45 stay in the shop or the office they are working in, or a
46 hut on a building site, or they can go for a stroll down
47 the road if they want. But they are not paid for the hour
48 they are not working.
49
50 MR. MORRIS: The most obvious example is, people consider a
51 nine to five, five day week, as a 40-hour week. That is
52 the standard understanding, you know.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would not, I consider it a 35 hour week.
55 If you got an hour off in the middle of the day. The point
56 is, whether I am right or wrong, have I actually got any
57 evidence to say that you are right?
58
59 MR. MORRIS: I think that, especially considering-----
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