Day 310 - 04 Dec 96 - Page 22
1 14 percent. That is a point in time figure.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
4
5 MR. RAMPTON: I am trying to see. I have actually put them
6 into the text somewhere.
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8 MR. MORRIS: It is page 39, bottom of.
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10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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12 MR. RAMPTON: It is the top of page 40.
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14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
15
16 MR. RAMPTON: 14 percent had only been there for less than
17 three months, but everybody else had been there for three
18 months or more. What that suggests is that, yes, there are
19 people who stay maybe three months; there are people who
20 stay maybe six months; there are people who stay maybe nine
21 months; and a lot of them, because the percentages for a
22 year or more have dropped dramatically when one gets down
23 from 86 percent to 47 percent; but if somebody is going to
24 stay for three months or six months or nine months and then
25 leaves, it is unlikely to be because the pay and the
26 conditions are indifferent. Much more likely it is a first
27 job; they go off and get what, as they get older, they
28 might regard as a job which is more suitable to their
29 abilities.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Does that not come to the same thing? Does
32 that not all point in the direction of the fact that they
33 are prepared to take work at McDonald's because that is all
34 that is available? The pay and conditions are indifferent,
35 so the moment they do get an opportunity to go somewhere
36 else a fair proportion of them are off. If the figures in
37 1994 and 1995 were that 64 percent and 61 percent stayed
38 for six months or more and 47 percent and 44 percent stayed
39 for one year or more, then the ones who stay for less than
40 six months must be turning over an awful lot, must they
41 not, to get the turnover figures which one has across the
42 board?
43
44 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, but I do not see that that is a problem. It
45 is a rate for a job; it is not a rate for some other job.
46 If people decide at the end of six months of working for
47 McDonald's that they are going to go and do something else,
48 which is perhaps more demanding or whose kind of work
49 demands a higher rate of pay, that is fine. That does not
50 mean McDonald's pay for what is done at McDonald's is low.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. In case I have not seen the real thrust
53 of your point, when we get to 42 and scheduling and the
54 number of staff, you make your points about the number of
55 staff on payroll.
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57 MR. RAMPTON: Yes.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Obviously, that has a significance, but
60 I wonder just how significant it is. I think the main
