Day 198 - 08 Dec 95 - Page 23
1 Q. You said something about the proper staffing levels will
2 have been what you used when you actually had a visit from
3 higher up?
4 A. That was it. You would have a visit from someone from
5 Head Office and a lot of effort would go into that, and
6 your labour for that day and the day before would be in the
7 region of, say, 17, 18 per cent. They would go away,
8 saying: "Good store, well run, the service was good", an
9 even at that stage, as some of the PRs stated -- both mine
10 and Mr. Davis' -- they would find things wrong. They might
11 say that the service was not quick enough or the lobby was
12 no covered properly, but you would still have all those
13 people on, and then the next day you would be expected to
14 try to do exactly the same thing when you have four or five
15 per cent less to spend and, obviously, that is where that
16 line came along. You could not actually achieve or you
17 cannot achieve what they wanted within the parameters of
18 what they then set you.
19
20 Q. Right. So four or five per cent might actually be -- five
21 per cent of 15 might be a third?
22 A. I mean, that might be in the extreme, but I would say
23 if you were running at, say, on a visit day, say, 17 per
24 cent or 18 per cent, then the figure they wanted was the
25 14, so that was the ......
26
27 Q. Right. Mr. Rampton asked you something about: "Are you
28 not aware of the bottom line cost at your present job in
29 the bank?" You said something like: "People are just as
30 important as the bottom line in the present job". Do you
31 want to say something about that?
32 A. Well, in the ------
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, quite frankly, I have to look and form my
35 own judgment on what McDonald's attitude is rather than
36 what someone else's might be by comparison. If we open up
37 that avenue, there is absolutely no end to it, seeking
38 comparables one way or the other and I do not want to
39 embark on that.
40
41 MR. MORRIS: Can I just ask a question? Is there a union where
42 you are now?
43 A. There is, yes.
44
45 Q. You said it was hard to get people to work full-time or to
46 stay, it was hard to get people to stay working full-time
47 because "they were the ones not prepared to work in the
48 environment". Can you just explain why it was hard to get
49 full-timers, people to stay full-time working at
50 McDonald's?
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Quite frankly, I have got the message about
53 that too. It is only where there might be obviously some
54 doubt or confusion that you need to re-examine.
55 Re-examination is not really just an opportunity to
56 underline some things which your witness has already said
57 more than once.
58
59 MR. MORRIS: If we go to page 62 of your performance review,
60 which Mr. Rampton called a damning indictment, this review;
