Day 138 - 20 Jun 95 - Page 13
1 Would you like to comment on that little passage about
2 dekilling of work and the business of grilling hamburgers
3 and, as they thought fit to mention, cleaning toilets and
4 so on?
5 A. I do not know how specific or general you really want
6 me to get, but that is, I call it rubbish. We spend
7 literally millions and millions of dollars on training
8 programmes, development programmes. We have been
9 acknowledged by the Government for the training and the
10 skills development that we do with our people. I can tell
11 you, having worked first hand in a restaurant, that it
12 takes a lot of learning and teaching and understanding.
13
14 Q. If I may impolitely interrupt you, you have put a thought
15 into my head: Roughly how long do you think it takes for
16 the new crew member to become -- it depends, of course, on
17 his ability -- averagely skilled at what the various tasks
18 are that he has to do within the restaurant? How long
19 would you say before you get the employee that you want?
20 A. Well, we start them off on a specific station, if you
21 will, and we would like them to master that station. We
22 break down our restaurants by stations. We would like them
23 to at least be of average proficiency before we move them
24 on to the next station.
25
26 We do have things called station observation check lists.
27 When someone first starts, you expect them not to be
28 proficient. They often at times work with what we call a
29 body who will correct them and help them with their work.
30 As they gain more experience, they would become more
31 proficient, and then we would try -- we would want to move
32 them -- we call it job rotation -- rotate them around the
33 store so that they can learn all aspects of the operation
34 and, hopefully, have a desire to move up into those next
35 levels in the time that we talked about.
36
37 Q. My original question was, understanding all of that,
38 roughly speaking, how long do you think that whole process
39 takes before you have your complete crew member?
40 A. I think that a person in two years could become
41 proficient in all of that, but I will also tell you that
42 even though I work in a store quite a bit, I get better and
43 better over time and learn better ways of serving our
44 customers. It is, in my estimation, a never ending
45 process.
46
47 Q. The next sentence reads: "So there is no need to employ
48 chefs or qualified staff, just anybody prepared to work for
49 low wages". We dealt with that yesterday, Mr. Stein. Then
50 it says, "As there is no legally enforced minimum wage in
51 Britain". As it happens, Mr. Stein, that is untrue, so far
52 as Britain is concerned at this time and we know it is
53 untrue in America. In your time at McDonald's, has there
54 always been a Federal minimum wage?
55 A. Yes, there has.
56
57 Q. "As there is no legal enforced minimum wage in Britain,
58 McDonald's can pay what they like, helping to depress wage
59 levels in the catering trade still further." Mr. Stein,
60 are you conscious that in any sense the level of wages
