Day 155 - 14 Jul 95 - Page 62
1 room and saying "I am off, I am not coming back"?
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Have you ever had that?
4 A. Maybe a couple of times in 14 years, yes.
5
6 MR. MORRIS: Does their work standard tend to deteriorate in the
7 last period of their employment?
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is really hopelessly general. You have
10 to give me just a little credit for having learnt something
11 about human nature and I have no doubt -- some people are
12 on longer fuses than others, are they not? There will be
13 half a dozen who blow up in a second or two, that may be
14 entirely due to the job, or it may be they have had a row
15 with their partner the night before, I do not know, and it
16 all gets too much for them. Someone else will be
17 harbouring a grievance, justified or not, and the pressure
18 sometimes blows up suddenly. This is why I think we have
19 to keep on specific instance because I am not sure that
20 sort of thing is going to help me anyway about general
21 conditions at McDonald's.
22
23 MR. MORRIS: I am referring ----
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Because it is just the same on the building
26 site.
27
28 MR. MORRIS: In this case I am actually dealing with a specific
29 point that Mr. Rampton felt like elevating from Mr. Magee's
30 statement and it is in the context of him saying on that
31 page after his dispute with the management about unions,
32 and he said, "One of the reasons for leaving is I could not
33 take McDonald's any more. I could not take the hassle that
34 management were giving me etc. etc. I was being given all
35 the worst jobs" etc., I think that ----
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I am urging you to do is get to it
38 pretty directly.
39
40 MR. MORRIS: Is there any reason why Mr. Magee, who is fed up
41 with McDonald's and the way he has been treated, according
42 to his statement, should feel like smiling at customers
43 when told to do so?
44 A. I cannot answer how he is feeling.
45
46 Q. I know, that is why I was asking generalities, especially
47 as you did not know Mr. Magee.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is the problem you see because for
50 better or worse, you are faced with a witness who says he
51 does not remember Mr. Magee.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: The problem was that Mr. Rampton in his
54 evidence-in-chief was drawing all sorts of conclusions
55 about what Mr. Magee's state of mind was, and I am doing
56 the same thing but, obviously, from a different viewpoint.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I suggest you let that pass unless you have
59 some particular point you want to make.
60
