Day 196 - 06 Dec 95 - Page 24
1 store. I did not actually see it as, oh, I am doing
2 something illegal.
3
4 Q. Was there anything wrong with doing it?
5 A. The only thing -----
6
7 Q. If the customers did not like it they could complain or not
8 come back?
9 A. Where it is wrong I suppose ----
10
11 Q. It might have been wrong in that ----
12 A. It is morally wrong.
13
14 Q. --- if someone right at the top had discovered it they
15 might have been horrified, but there was nothing wrong in
16 the sense of any illegality or breaking some promise of
17 McDonald's to its customer, was there?
18 A. Where we were actually doing something wrong was the
19 fact that we were breaking the laid down written
20 procedures ----
21
22 Q. Yes, I understand that.
23 A. --- of the Company, as opposed to a legal procedure
24 where this is the portion you should have. Everything has
25 a size, a portion amount, it is all very strongly
26 documented as to how much ketchup should go on, how much
27 onion, what constitutes a good milk shake. By doing that
28 we were trying to save money for the store as opposed to
29 improve the quality of the product.
30
31 MR. MORRIS: You said you felt it was morally wrong. Were you
32 happy to do these kinds of things?
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Did you say it was morally wrong?
35 A. When you asked me just now, I suppose it was morally
36 wrong.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Did you say that?
39 A. Did I say that?
40
41 MS. STEEL: I thought I heard him say it but you were talking at
42 the same time.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Perhaps that is why I missed it. I can
45 understand it may be morally wrong if you are an employer
46 who has set procedures and you decide to break them for
47 other reasons, but did you see it as morally wrong for any
48 other reason?
49 A. At the time I did not see anything wrong with doing
50 it. I saw it as a way of achieving an aim I had actually
51 been set and it very quickly became part of the normal
52 working practices.
53
54 MR. MORRIS: McDonald's have said that the customer is
55 paramount, the quality of the service to the customer. Do
56 you have any comment on that in the light of watering down
57 products to increase profit?
58 A. As I said previously I felt ----
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is not relevant to anything in this
