Day 195 - 04 Dec 95 - Page 07


     
     1        you just explain what you mean by management when you have
     2        not named particular people?
     3        A.  When I refer to "management", I refer to them
     4        collectively as meaning that any Manager that I talked to
     5        from Store Manager down to Floor Manager, because that is
     6        what we were -- when I was working at McDonald's that is
     7        what we were told, your first line of contact is Floor
     8        Managers.  So we always regarded them as Managers and what
     9        they said stood for what management said.
    10
    11   Q.   So when you say "management" it is any one from any level?
    12        A.  Manager.
    13
    14   Q.   "I said that whenever I was going to be required to work
    15        later than my scheduled hours, I wanted advance notice so
    16        as to be able to inform my wife.  Unfortunately, this
    17        procedure was not followed by McDonald's.  On one
    18        particular occasion when I was asked to work late without
    19        having been given notice, I was so annoyed by this that I
    20        protested and in fact got three or four other crew members
    21        to join in with my protest.  We were all campaigning
    22        against having to work late shifts without notice.  We were
    23        not complaining about late shifts per se.  The day after
    24        this event, Trudie Jones took me to one side and told me in
    25        no uncertain terms that 'We do not want such protests
    26        here'.
    27
    28        With regard to the story in The Guardian article about
    29        McDonald's closing a store and dismissing the entire staff
    30        because they formed a union, I had definitely heard this
    31        story independently of The Guardian.  I heard it from my
    32        sister who worked in the Woolwich McDonald's.  When
    33        I mentioned this story to members of the management at the
    34        Colchester store, they neither confirmed nor denied that it
    35        was true.
    36
    37        In my store, full-time staff were scheduled for two main
    38        shifts - 7 a.m. to 3.00 or 4 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 12 p.m..
    39        People on the late shift were meant to finish at 12.00",
    40        midnight, sorry that is 12 midnight; it does not say
    41        midnight, "since the store closed at 11 p.m."
    42        A.  Yes.
    43
    44   Q.   "(Except on Fridays and Saturdays when it closed at
    45        12.00 p.m.).  When McDonald's calculated the amount of time
    46        that we were allowed for our break and the amount of food
    47        that we were allowed to take during that time, they based
    48        their calculations on the number of hours we were scheduled
    49        to work and not the number of hours we actually did work.
    50        Consequently, employees who worked extra time beyond their 
    51        scheduled shifts did not get the correct amount of break or 
    52        food. 
    53
    54        When I was working the late shift, I would quite often not
    55        finish until 3.00 to 4 a.m.  At some times of the year,
    56        this would occur as regularly as two or three times a
    57        week.  Late finishes like this also occurred wherever there
    58        was going to be a visit from the Head Office or Area
    59        Supervisor.  Somebody from Head Office often came once
    60        every two weeks and the Area Supervisor might appear as

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