Day 209 - 25 Jan 96 - Page 33
1 Q. -- something which appears to be what you wrote to the job
2 centre, or whatever its proper title is or was, and then
3 there appears a little introduction explaining why you are
4 being asked various questions, and the questions which are
5 asked, and then at page 29 a note from you saying your
6 answers in some instances are too long to get on the form.
7 A. I typed it all out, yes.
8
9 Q. So you put them on the enclosed pages with the relevant
10 numbers.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: Well -----
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The most sensible thing -- as it is all going
15 on to the transcript to which people may want to refer in
16 due course for the complete evidence -- is just to read the
17 question and then read the answer.
18
19 MR. MORRIS: Yes. OK. What I will do is read out -----
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you want to read it out at all, rather
22 than just have it taken as read.
23
24 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I will just read out your signed statement of
25 22nd November 1994 on page 26. It is a letter to the
26 Employment Benefit Office.
27
28 "I left my job training for the following reasons. Being a
29 shift running manager in McDonald's, I was expected to take
30 responsibility for staff and customers on my shifts. These
31 shifts were very often inadequately staffed, affecting
32 safety. Produce that was often out of date had to be used
33 when there was no fresh produce available. This made me
34 personally liable on my shifts. Other safety aspects
35 included incorrectly wired grills. These had to be
36 disconnected from the RCD safety circuit in order to get
37 them to work. So I was always in the dilemma of risking
38 electric shock or not cooking any food. This is still
39 going on over a year after the safety circuits were
40 installed. McDonald's expected me to take responsibility,
41 but did not give me the equipment or staff to do so."
42
43 Do you stand by that statement you made?
44 A. Yes, yes. I would say, if I can, that, you know, at
45 the time I made a point of -- I think I am quite
46 melodramatic in that statement, because I was worried about
47 not getting benefit, I was worried about McDonald's saying
48 things. So it would not be these stores were very often
49 inadequately staffed; I would say, you know, like
50 I illustrated afterwards, one in three of the shifts would
51 be understaffed. But everything else on there, yes,
52 I would agree with.
53
54 Q. Going to the questions that they asked you in the follow-up
55 -- that is, the employment office asked you -- question 1:
56 "What final incident at work prompted you to leave when
57 you did on 9th November?" Answer: "I finally resigned my
58 position on 9th November, when I came in to run the night
59 shift and found that I had once again been scheduled a
60 completely inadequate number of staff to run the shift
