Day 187 - 13 Nov 95 - Page 22
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just leave it there, unless there is -----
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4 MR. MORRIS: I will leave the documents. Can he just summarise
5 what the demands of the works inspectorate were?
6 A. The works inspectorate came first to verify; and they
7 noted that in several McDonald's restaurants of Lyon that
8 the works conditions were difficult. They sent formal
9 demands to amend and change these conditions. On the other
10 hand, they instituted about 15 legal hearings for failure
11 to respect the workers' code.
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13 Q. Can you say what the issues that they made demands were,
14 just briefly?
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16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just the areas, the topics?
17 A. Going over the legal number of work hours, French law
18 states that you should not go above 10 hours work daily;
19 and the workers worked much more than these 10 stipulated
20 hours. Second point: people who are aged less than 18 are
21 not allowed to work after 10 o'clock at night. There was
22 also failure to respect this. Third point: the management
23 of McDonald's make us pay for our uniforms. In this
24 matter, the works inspector again had to become involved.
25 There are many other points.
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27 Q. Did they make any ruling about -- the work inspectors, make
28 any demands about the union representatives, conditions for
29 union representatives?
30 A. Yes. To begin with, these were not done by formal
31 demand. They sent letters, included in the documents; and,
32 following an investigation, they received about 100
33 employees who gave evidence of the pressure and
34 intimidation they faced if they tried to vote for the CFDT
35 list. From there, the works inspectorate passed these
36 findings on to the judge; the CFDT formally complained; and
37 from this point the investigation took in the 12 managers
38 of the McDonald's branches.
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40 Q. Did these 100 employees come from just one store or from
41 many of the stores in Lyon?
42 A. No, no, not at all -- from all the McDonald's
43 branches. The elections for the work council concerned all
44 12 McDonald's in Lyon.
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46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause. Let us take the five minute
47 break there, anyway, otherwise it will not be of much use.
48
49 (Short Adjournment)
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51 MR. MORRIS: If I can continue the statement: "As for my
52 working conditions, nothing has changed in the attitude of
53 the management. The only thing was that in August of 1994
54 after two years and repeated requests, they gave me two new
55 uniforms in my size."
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57 I cannot actually remember when this statement was
58 originally made, when it was served. I think it was about
59 a year ago, anyway.
60
