Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 42
1 that restaurants have an annualised turnover rate of 35.4
2 percent. That is page 24, line 58. And that was high in
3 comparison with other catering sectors in industrial
4 industries such as canteens in hospitals or factories or
5 whatever.
6
7 So here we have a pattern that an industry where there is
8 high turnover, such as the catering industry, restaurants
9 have a high turnover compared to other parts of that
10 industry and McDonald's has an extremely high turnover
11 compared to that already high turnover compared to the
12 average of a high turnover industry. So it is a little bit
13 like the pay situation in terms of comparisons. Then there
14 was some debate about that until page 26.
15
16 He did make a good point that the more the employee is
17 paid, the more it costs to replace them. That is a
18 truism. That is page 26, line 27. So maybe it is
19 fortunate for McDonald's that whilst they have a high
20 turnover rate, they have very low pay.
21
22 Then on page 28 we came to the leaving percentage, the
23 reasons for leaving document which I have got down as
24 document D, but I don't know where it was behind - I think
25 it was behind Lynne Mead - for the year 1993. And
26 Mr. Pearson, as an expert, kind of focused in on the parts
27 that were quite clear. He said some of the document was
28 difficult to draw conclusions from.
29
30 I think he said that you cannot attribute the high turnover
31 at McDonald's just from the 23 percent identified as
32 returning to school or college, obviously not, because that
33 is such a small percentage. He said, at page 29, line 59:
34 It is impossible to sustain the position, let alone prove
35 it. That is my addition, sorry. It is impossible to
36 sustain the position that high turnover is due to students
37 going back to school based upon this information which is
38 the company's own information.
39
40 Of course, that is the McDonald's line, which does not bear
41 -- well, he says effectively their line is impossible to
42 sustain, let alone prove. So it is just the line which
43 they give out for public consumption. The reality is if 23
44 percent, according to the company themselves, of reasons
45 for leaving McDonald's are down to going back to college or
46 school, and if, as they say, some people are coming back to
47 McDonald's and returning to school and coming back again,
48 if a substantial proportion of those 23 percent leaving
49 surveys are the same people, that would mean even less of a
50 percentage of McDonald's staff are the people that are
51 doing this.
52
53 For example, if on average each one of those persons leaves
54 and joins three times in a year, that would mean a third of
55 that turnover 23 percent, say 8 percent of their staff
56 would be students who are coming and going regularly in the
57 year, and so featuring three times in the exit surveys
58 towards the total of 23 percent.
59
60 So effectively, what we have is, according to McDonald's
