Day 142 - 26 Jun 95 - Page 49
1
2 Q. Does that refresh your memory about legal steps taken by
3 the Barbados government to close the operation, McDonald's
4 operations?
5 A. I know in general that this operator was having
6 difficulties but he was not closed down by the
7 authorities. He was shut down by virtue of legal action by
8 McDonald's instituted in default because, in the Company's
9 mind, he was not doing what he should be doing.
10
11 Q. Does that mean that there was legal action pending by the
12 authorities or some kind of action pending by the
13 authorities but McDonald's stepped in first?
14 A. The thing I do not know about is I know there were some
15 difficulties. I believe those difficulties (but I am not
16 sure) were resolved between the operator and the
17 authorities, but we still were not happy with this
18 individual because the store was not running very well at
19 all.
20
21 Q. What were the problems as you saw it with his operation
22 then?
23 A. What the Operations people told me was that the
24 operations of the stores were not good, the stores were not
25 clean, there was not the quality that we were looking for
26 and the service was not anywhere close to what we would
27 want.
28
29 Q. Do you remember anything about after it opened there being
30 a storm of protest about its employment practices with some
31 local restaurants maintaining that McDonald's was hiring
32 cheap holiday labour from schools which was unfair
33 competition?
34 A. No, I do not, I really do not. I have no knowledge of
35 that.
36
37 Q. But when you say you have no knowledge, had you heard about
38 it?
39 A. No, I just knew the operator was having problems in
40 general with operating his store, that right from the
41 outset the Company was concerned about this operator, and
42 felt they had made a mistake in picking the operator and he
43 was not delivering to customers what we wanted and we
44 wanted him out. We made a mistake in selecting an
45 operator. I will grant you that.
46
47 Q. Was McDonald's there hiring employees who were still at
48 school?
49 A. Sir, I do not know. The legal proceedings were
50 instituted, as I mentioned. We were advised not to go to
51 Barbados, that the matter was being handled legally and
52 that the operator was very hostile towards the Company, and
53 that it needed to be handled through legal means. So, the
54 Human Resources group was told that they could not be
55 involved because the operator was extremely hostile to us
56 and legal matters were pending.
57
58 Q. But as far as you know his personnel practices, when you
59 said that you were concerned about the cleanliness
60 standards, were you concerned about personnel practices?
