Day 188 - 15 Nov 95 - Page 70
1 the most terrible burn down the inside of her
2 arm. The burn looked absolutely horrific,
3 partly because she was black and therefore the
4 raw pink colour of the burn looked all the more
5 unpleasant. She was one of the people
6 I approached with regard to joining the union.
7 I explained to her at the time that if she was a
8 member of the union, the union could have made
9 representations on her behalf to ensure that she
10 was properly treated after the accident occurred
11 and also to ensure that such accidents did not
12 occur in the future. The girl was very
13 interested in joining the union.
14
15 I had one very bad burn from a chip unit. I was
16 not being particularly careless at all. The
17 burn was on the underside of my wrist and took a
18 long time to heal. The scar still has not
19 gone. The First Aid in the store was totally
20 inadequate. They did not keep any burn spray on
21 the premises. They just told me to put the burn
22 under running water. I was told I was stupid
23 for having been burnt. I went upstairs
24 immediately after burning myself and one of my
25 fellow crew members put a bandage on it for me.
26 I did not see a doctor.
27
28 Approximately 85 per cent of the employees in
29 the store were under 21 and approximately 25 per
30 cent were under 18. I recollect that one girl
31 was sent home generally at ten o'clock and was
32 not allowed to work past that time. She was the
33 only one who was sent home and I therefore think
34 that she was under 16.
35
36 Most of the people who worked there, in fact the
37 overwhelming majority, were students. There
38 were only one or two people working there whom I
39 would describe as 'career people'. There were a
40 high proportion of Chinese working there,
41 approximately 15 per cent, and two out of the
42 eight managers were Chinese. The ethnic
43 breakdown of the remainder was approximately as
44 follows: 1. Indians (Mauritian) 15 per cent;
45 2. Greeks 30 per cent; 3. Whites 15 per cent;
46 4. Blacks 25 per cent.
47
48 I worked an average of approximately 20 hours
49 per week. I was generally scheduled to work
50 between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Sunday and Monday
51 night, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on one weekday and all
52 day Saturday, 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. I never usually
53 had to work much more than 15 or 20 minutes
54 beyond my scheduled finishing time.
55
56 On a few occasions I was sent to work in other
57 stores when there was short staffed. They
58 generally sent me by taxi. I always made it
59 quite clear before I went that I was only
60 prepared to be sent to another store if they
