Day 197 - 07 Dec 95 - Page 49
1 properly that you get two days off in every six, is he
2 not?
3 A. What he is, in fact, saying is if I work hard and do
4 the job, he will schedule me two days off. I had no
5 control over the days I got off. I was scheduled to work
6 certain hours, certain shifts. That was it. What he is
7 actually saying is that if I work hard and do what is
8 expected, then the carrot is you will get two days off a
9 week.
10
11 Q. "Being a married man, it is your duty to spend as much
12 time at home as possible". Was that on Mr. Davis's part
13 sheer hypocrisy then?
14 A. It is as I have stated, I never ever got two days at
15 the start of my career at McDonald's.
16
17 Q. Are these performance reviews conducted on a one-to-one
18 basis between the Manager and the Second Assistant?
19 A. Yes.
20
21 Q. This would have been discussed between you then, would it?
22 A. It would have been, yes.
23
24 Q. Did he not say to you: "Look, you are married. You have
25 a wife to look after. You should not have been working as
26 many days as you are"?
27 A. No. What was actually said was that if you continue
28 to improve, you keep working hard and the store is running
29 well, then we will be able to go down to having two days
30 off a week. If you go through other statements further
31 on, it is the continual theme, that I think later on where
32 it is actually said that people should be given two days
33 off sometime later on.
34
35 Q. One of your recurrent themes, Mr. Coton, is that there was
36 constant pressure on you to reduce your labour and food
37 costs; is that right?
38 A. As a Store Manager, yes.
39
40 Q. And that insufficient attention was, therefore, paid to
41 things like numbers of crew, sufficient staff in the
42 restaurant and quality must have suffered as a result,
43 right?
44 A. That is correct.
45
46 Q. In your supplementary or your details that you gave to
47 Mr. Morris you say: "Under-staffing was the norm, so was
48 cost cutting to achieve the targets". Do you remember
49 saying those things?
50 A. Yes.
51
52 Q. Can you look, please, at page 30 of this file which is a
53 performance review, I think probably your first one as
54 Store Manager. We can see that on page 28.
55 A. Yes.
56
57 Q. It was done on probably 1st November 1987, you having been
58 appointed on 1st August 1987. It was carried out by
59 Mr. Davis who had become Area Supervisor. Have you got
60 page 28 open? I just want to draw something to your
