Day 151 - 10 Jul 95 - Page 38


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
     3
     4   MR. MORRIS:  I want to collect my thoughts.  You said in your
     5        evidence-in-chief that there would be uproar (which was
     6        your word) if people had their hours dictated, if
     7        strong-minded employees had their hours dictated to them,
     8        in terms of being asked to work.  What do you mean by that,
     9        sorry?
    10        A.  I believe the context was a supposition to refute the
    11        allegation that people were forced to work hours either
    12        more or less than they were scheduled to, if my memory
    13        serves me correctly, to suggest that people who do work for
    14        us are intelligent individuals who would not necessarily
    15        take kindly -- and I think that is the context in which
    16        I may well have used "uproar" or whatever to describe that.
    17
    18   Q.   You have said, about keeping crew on after scheduled hours,
    19        you do not want to compel someone; individuals would not do
    20        it; and then, soon after that, about using punishments,
    21        putting people on particularly dirty tasks or something as
    22        a punishment for not agreeing with the scheduling time, or
    23        something like times, whatever, that if that happened no
    24        one would work at McDonald's.
    25
    26        I put it to you Mr. Stanton that the problem you have at
    27        McDonald's is, as you say, if you have strong-minded
    28        employees.  So what you do at McDonald's is, you
    29        deliberately employ young people, inexperienced people; you
    30        force them into a routine where they are expected to comply
    31        with management rulings, where they have no rights; and
    32        that is how you manage to get people to work in the
    33        conditions at McDonald's stores.  What do you say to all
    34        that?
    35        A.  I refute that wholeheartedly.  To suggest that we have
    36        some sort of mind hold over individuals and there is some
    37        form of brainwashing going on to make people stay behind
    38        after hours, to use some form of project as a form of
    39        punishment, that those people stay on indiscriminately,
    40        based on those accusations, I suggest that is a very poor
    41        outsider's view of the business and does a lot of
    42        disservice to the people who work within it.
    43
    44   Q.   You said that students would ask to do double shifts; for
    45        example, they would say, "I need the extra money", but that
    46        was not something you would encourage, because they would
    47        get tired half the way through their second shift?
    48        A.  That is something I did not encourage.
    49
    50   Q.   Did not encourage.  But that is a recognition, is it not, 
    51        that people are desperate for money --- 
    52        A.  It is perhaps even ----- 
    53
    54   Q.   -- and are prepared to work unsocial hours and lengths of
    55        time because they are desperate for money?
    56        A.  Not at all.  Why is it so wrong for someone to have
    57        pride in their employment, pride for working for a
    58        company?  If that is a crime, then I will stand accused and
    59        guilty.  But the fact that I have people working in it and
    60        we, as a company, have individuals who enjoy the work,

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