Day 303 - 19 Nov 96 - Page 40
1 will not be interested. I think that is a clear indication
2 there that the Corporation does not have any real concern
3 for the crew people who are working in the stores, except
4 inasmuch as it may cut into their profits if they have to
5 pay out compensation or, you know, they have to pay sick
6 pay. That is the Company's own document.
7
8 The minutes of 7th April 1993 said on page 2, said that
9 Jill Barns had confirmed that electric shocks were still
10 happening but were not being reported. This was despite
11 the fact that all electric shocks should be reported as
12 serious incidents.
13
14 The other thing on health and safety, I mean, I do not know
15 whether the Plaintiffs are going to try and say this at the
16 end of the day, about they have provisions in place, for
17 example with the Mark Hopkins incident Mr. Hopkins should
18 not have changed the plug. Sorry, Mr. Chapman should not
19 have changed the plug because it was contrary to company
20 policy. And they have said that in relation to just the
21 general practice, but we heard from I cannot remember how
22 many different witnesses of ours that it was pretty much
23 standard practice for all the recruits, or untrained crew
24 members, to repair electrical equipment with the knowledge
25 and sanction of managers. As an example of that, Mr. Alimi
26 said that he had changed plugs on a number of occasions.
27
28 I think the point being that McDonald's answer to all of
29 these criticisms is to claim that it is not their fault
30 because they have got a policy against it and it is
31 therefore the crew members' faults if they do not take any
32 notice of the policy, whereas the reality of the situation
33 is that whether or not something is in writing as a policy
34 crew members are still asked to do it and be put under
35 pressure to do these things by management, basically to cut
36 costs.
37
38 These are just bits and pieces all over the place really.
39 The point about clock cards that Mr. Morris mentioned
40 earlier, the fact that we have not been given clock cards
41 from the vast majority of stores where we had pleadings
42 about what had been going on in the stores in relation to
43 hours and pay, and so on, is indicative of the fact that
44 the Company has something to hide and we had sworn
45 affidavits, I think from Mr. Nicholson, stating that the
46 clock cards were not kept and they there were no clock
47 cards in existence for Colchester, and so on, whereas there
48 has been a number of documents and -- I mean there has been
49 a few we have referred to specifically, and I happened to
50 come across my notes of this today that in the crew
51 training programme, which is in the crew training
52 programme, pink 12, tab 11, page 493, it says that clock
53 cards should be maintained for at least five years.
54 I think Mr. Preston also tried to claim that the Company
55 did not have any policy, or did not keep clock cards, which
56 is clearly not borne out by the Company's own documents.
57
58 There was another document which was disclosed very late in
59 the day, which I cannot remember the name of, but which
60 indicated that it was a legal requirement to keep the clock
