Day 124 - 10 May 95 - Page 19
1 A. I do not recall that. I would not have knowledge of
2 that. I do not know if that is correct. So the fact that
3 that is in the book does not, to me, indicate that that is
4 how things developed. I do not know what the genesis was
5 for McDonald's.
6
7 Q. You do not remember this specific ---
8 A. Eliminating the use of detectors.
9
10 Q. -- ruling?
11 A. No, I do not.
12
13 Q. If I read it out it might jog your memory:
14
15 "The Commissioner ruled that consent forms 'are obtained
16 under real or fancied duress and coercion in that the
17 employee believed their hours of work would be reduced or
18 that their employment would be terminated if they refused
19 to "voluntarily" consent ...'" You do not remember that
20 specific -----
21 A. I have no knowledge of that. Again, you know, we have
22 independent franchisees around the country, as I have
23 indicated earlier, some of them used it, but I would say
24 that probably the majority of restaurants did not use it,
25 so I could not give you -----
26
27 Q. Are you aware that, as part of this official enquiry, it
28 was an issue at this time whether McDonald's were legally
29 obliged to record tips that were given to staff, and that
30 the Company was accused of keeping tips and not letting the
31 staff retain them, and not recording that fact, which it
32 was obliged to do? Do you remember that?
33 A. I have no knowledge of that. I can only tell you from
34 my experience what our policy was regarding tips. I do not
35 know if -----
36
37 Q. We have heard evidence that the Company is strongly opposed
38 to staff keeping tips.
39 A. It was our policy, and still is our policy, not to
40 receive tips.
41
42 Q. But when tips were received ---
43 A. Well ----
44
45 Q. -- what was the policy?
46 A. The policy was that we asked our employees not to
47 receive tips from customers, and this goes back to the
48 early days of McDonald's and going back to the 60s. This
49 is before McDonald's was a household name. Most fast, what
50 you would call, fast service, car-hop, type restaurants it
51 was customary, at the time, to receive tips, particularly
52 if it was table service or if they brought the meal out to
53 your car. In McDonald's, service obviously was a little
54 different. We wanted to present value to the customer, and
55 we felt it was unnecessary to receive tips. So that was
56 our policy. That was our stated policy upfront to our
57 employees.
58
59 Q. So if the employees receive tips they had to do what? They
60 had to put it in the till and not keep it themselves?
