Day 085 - 08 Feb 95 - Page 18
1 conflict with each other? For example, is it not an
2 obvious statement that the pressure to increase sales can
3 be in conflict with the pressure to improve safety
4 procedures? Is that not a kind of standard management
5 approach, that the company has to be aware of that?
6 A. The overall riding -- the overriding approach is the
7 aim of the restaurant is to increase customer satisfaction
8 rather than increasing sales. By implication that is what
9 would happen. To do that you would have to serve customers
10 quickly and safely. Employees have to act safely, and to
11 be contented in their work and happy in their work to be
12 able to do that. The whole ethos of McDonald's would
13 suggest that is not the case or the way I understand it it
14 is not the case.
15
16 Q. But is it not fair to recognise that there are aspects of
17 your business that are not necessarily all automatically
18 working in harmony? I will give you an example. Would it
19 be fair to recognise that if you are committed, say, to the
20 welfare of your employees -- that is a fact, yes, you are
21 committed to the welfare of your employees?
22 A. Yes.
23
24 Q. But you are also committed to keeping wage costs down,
25 labour costs down, as a percentage of sales per store?
26 That is correct as well, is it not?
27 A. No. The latter statement is not a goal or an objective
28 or a desire of the company.
29
30 Q. It is true, though, is it not, that each store is set a
31 labour percentage guideline for a year of what the labour
32 costs are expected not to go above, I think it is between
33 16 and 18 per cent? I can refer to documents, if you
34 like.
35 A. No, I think you are talking about, you know, do we
36 budget? We budget like any business on an annual basis,
37 and the labour line is one line. It has to be controlled
38 like every other line. It is part of doing business.
39
40 Q. But do you recognise that that may be an area where what
41 the workers want in terms of wages would be in conflict
42 with what the management want to pay? Do you recognise
43 there are conflicting -- I cannot think of the word
44 now -----
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Shall we stick to safety for the moment?
47
48 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You can go on to the other, by all means, but
51 it started with safety. (To the witness): What is being
52 suggested to you is that McDonald's is a quick service
53 restaurant with the emphasis on the "quick", and the
54 quicker you go, the less safe it is?
55 A. Sorry, that was a question?
56
57 Q. Yes, it is a question. It is a question in the sense that
58 you are invited to comment on that as a proposition.
59 A. Right. The quicker that you go, the less safe the
60 environment would be? I think you would have more
