Day 199 - 11 Dec 95 - Page 08


     
     1        knew they were not keen on working in.  I.e. if someone was
     2        not keen on working on the till, you would put them on the
     3        till; if they were not that good on the grill, you would
     4        make sure they went on the grill -- so it is not actually
     5        doing toilet duty all the time.
     6
     7   Q.   That was part of it?
     8        A.  Well, I mean, if you were on the lobby, then cleaning
     9        the toilet was part of your job, to make sure that the
    10        toilets are kept lean.
    11
    12   Q.   "He/she would be shouted at in front of the crew and
    13        humiliated publicly.  Invariably, if a crew member answered
    14        back in these circumstances, he/she was sent home
    15        immediately and were obviously not paid for the hours that
    16        were not worked.  Some employees who were sent home in this
    17        way just did not come back, although some did.  In my
    18        experience, very few crew members were actually sacked in
    19        accordance with the proper disciplinary procedures, which
    20        were lengthy and which provided for several stages of
    21        discipline before sacking.  Most employees just got too fed
    22        up with the treatment they were getting and left.
    23
    24        I wish to stress that the training theory of McDonald's
    25        management was actually very good.  It was a useful
    26        training in itself.  However, as I have stated above, there
    27        was a vast difference between the theory and the practice."
    28
    29        Do you just want to say what the reason for that was?
    30
    31   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, we have had quite a lot of this already.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, I think, unless I have missed something,
    34        Mr. Cranna has really answered that question earlier when
    35        you asked him something about it.
    36
    37   MS. STEEL:  Yes, OK.  "I left McDonald's because I just could
    38        not take it any more.  It got to the stage where I just
    39        could not take the job seriously.  In order to succeed, one
    40        had to 'live McDonald's' and be prepared to devote yourself
    41        to nothing else.  This, combined with the pressure, hours
    42        and money made me feel that it was just not worth it.
    43        McDonald's had ridiculous expectations of their staff for
    44        the amount of money that they actually earned."
    45
    46        That is signed by you and dated 27th July 1993.  Do you
    47        stand by what was written in that statement as a true
    48        record of your experiences?
    49        A.  Yes.
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:  Do you remember a Senior Supervisor called Rose 
    52        French? 
    53        A.  I do vaguely, yes.
    54
    55   Q.   She gave evidence earlier on in this case.  There was one
    56        thing which she said which was something about there were
    57        occasional problems due to short staffing, is what she
    58        remembered at the store.  Do you know anything about that?
    59        A.  It is inevitable that if you are -- I think if you are
    60        trying to run sort of a very tight ship and keep staffing

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