Day 188 - 15 Nov 95 - Page 71
1 would send me back home in a taxi. I did not
2 see any reason why I should pay the transport
3 costs. Although they initially agreed to this,
4 I found that once I had been sent there in a
5 taxi and done my work, they then refused to send
6 me back in a taxi. It was only after strenuous
7 argument with the management on each such
8 occasion that they agreed to pay for a taxi.
9
10 So far as I was aware, nobody was ever sent home
11 in a taxi from Seven Sisters McDonald's if they
12 were working late. At my store, there was a
13 full staff who used to come on duty overnight to
14 clean up the store. This was a fully scheduled
15 night shift. Every single employee on this
16 shift was black without exception. These people
17 were paid the after 11 p.m. rates. Many
18 employees in the store worked in excess of 39
19 hours per week in total, mainly because they
20 needed the money. There was no increase salary
21 rate for hours worked in excess of 39. Nobody
22 in the store was aware of the legal minimum
23 wage. The only information pinned on the crew
24 notice board was the Office Shops and Railways
25 Act which people generally found to be
26 incomprehensible.
27
28 People were often called into work on their days
29 off. In fact, I even offered to come in on rest
30 days when I was really short of cash.
31 Generally, however, there was no pressure to
32 work on your rest day. If people had refused,
33 there would have been no adverse consequences.
34 During breaks all employees were supposed to get
35 McDonald's food. When I first arrived there, we
36 were allowed two hamburgers, a portion of chips,
37 a pie and a drink. After three months this was
38 cut down to one burger instead of two (with all
39 the rest of the trimmings). This was another
40 thing which spurred me on to form a union. I
41 was angered by the way McDonald's made
42 unilateral changes to the employment contract.
43
44 If employees worked under nine hours they got
45 one break; over nine hours they got two breaks.
46 If they worked over four hours but less than
47 nine hours they got one 45 minute break. If
48 they worked in excess of nine hours they got an
49 extra 45 minutes. However, McDonald's always
50 scheduled shifts from 2 until 11 wherever
51 possible, i.e. not more than nine hours so that
52 they did not have to give a second break.
53
54 People regularly worked more than eight hours in
55 each shift contrary to what was stated in the
56 Crew Handbook. Furthermore, the number of
57 breaks you were entitled to was calculated by
58 reference to the amount of time that you were
59 scheduled to work and not to the amount of time
60 that you actually did work.
