Day 294 - 05 Nov 96 - Page 31
1 minced meat.
2
3 She had worked as an experienced official veterinary
4 surgeon at Jarrett's, that supplied McKeys for McDonald's
5 use, and she had been brought in specially, the court
6 heard, to deal with shortcomings at the slaughter house,
7 and she described several discrepancies between official
8 regulations and actual practice at the plants, including
9 poor hygiene, improper inspection, and higher than
10 recommended storage temperatures, all of which could
11 contribute to contamination and bacterial growth in the raw
12 material for McDonald's beef burgers.
13
14 And rather than welcoming the opportunity that she was
15 giving them to improve their food safety conditions, which,
16 if the food industry was committed to those matters, they
17 would have welcomed her, she was sacked.
18 The issue was the BSE non-traceability of supplies, but it
19 was clear that she was meeting resistance because she was
20 suggesting improvements as an experienced OVS who had
21 worked in a number of countries.
22
23 So that was not a particularly brilliant order, but before
24 I come on to the actual employment conditions side of the
25 part of the equation, I think we have established at every
26 stage in the live animals in the slaughter process in the
27 production up to the back door of the store, that
28 everything that is said and implied in the leaflet is true,
29 despite them being part of the words complained of by
30 McDonald's and despite McDonald's heroic attempt to deny
31 what I have just been saying by bringing their own
32 witnesses.
33
34 They did not have to defend slaughter house conditions or
35 production, rearing and slaughter methods as regards
36 hygiene as well as welfare. They chose to take on this as
37 an issue and it is a testament, we would say, to the
38 strength of the fact sheet that it held up one hundred
39 percent and we believe we have demonstrated our case, and
40 now the remaining additional issue is the potential for
41 undercooking of the food as well.
42
43 I have already spoken about that in terms of the fragility
44 and the flawed nature of the system and the specifications
45 and that is only really emphasised by the reality of what
46 actually goes on inside the stores. It is not really any
47 surprise, because the workers are paid very little money,
48 66 percent of them are under the age of 21, inexperienced,
49 they are bossed around, and working under very great
50 pressure they have to learn how to use dozens of pieces of
51 equipment and processes that require what we have seen,
52 these OCLs, which maybe, if you worked there for six months
53 or a year, you might get on top of, but, as we have heard,
54 the turnover is huge at McDonald's, many people working for
55 just a few weeks.
56
57 And inevitably, basically, the fragility of the procedures
58 is bound to be breached, transgressed or whatever on a
59 regular basis. In case any of the workers want to do
60 anything about, for example, higher staffing levels, more
