Day 188 - 15 Nov 95 - Page 72
1
2 Employees had to ask permission of either the
3 management or a five star yellow badge (who
4 themselves went and asked a Manager) in order to
5 be entitled to take their break. Sometimes
6 employees were forced to go on their break very
7 early on in the shift, often even just half an
8 hour into that shift. They also were often told
9 to go off for their break at the very end of the
10 shift, sometimes leaving 15 or 30 minutes after
11 returning from the break before they were due to
12 go home.
13
14 Wherever possible, management tried to spread
15 rates over the whole day. Employees had to
16 clock on and off for breaks.
17
18 One had to ask for permission to take a drinks
19 break. Sometimes permission was refused even
20 for people working on the grills and friers.
21 Permission was refused on the basis that the
22 store was 'too busy'. Even when employees got
23 drinks breaks they were generally hustled and
24 told to hurry. I was told by one of the
25 managers, Irving, that the number of staff that
26 the store was able to take depended on the
27 amount of the takings in each till. The two
28 were directly related. Consequently, on
29 Saturday and Sunday when the store takings were
30 higher they could take on more staff.
31
32 The store was definitely permanently
33 understaffed. They rarely had the correct
34 number of people at each station. Quite often,
35 I was deployed to clean the road outside the
36 store. Management hated me and made me do this
37 sort of job just for spite. I was regularly
38 sent on 'environment/index.html">litter patrol' and even had to wash the
39 pavement outside the store.
40
41 I also worked in the back room. I was given no
42 protective clothing to go in the freezer - coats
43 were only provided for the environment/index.html">litter patrol. These
44 coats were too unhygenic to wear near food
45 because they were so dirty. However, the
46 freezer rooms were regularly kept at a
47 temperature of minus 20 degrees Centigrade and
48 therefore I had no choice but to wear a environment/index.html">litter
49 patrol coat. I certainly never had any gloves
50 to wear which made the job very unpleasant.
51
52 One of the rooms at the back of the store where
53 the cleaning utensils and chemicals were kept
54 absolutely stank and was permanently flooded.
55 I thought this was extremely unhealthy.
56 I regularly used to have to shift boxes of
57 burgers, each of which weighed 20 pounds, two at
58 a time up flights of stairs. Occasionally, I
59 would have to carry three boxes at a time if
60 management insisted. Employees of all ages were
