Day 152 - 11 Jul 95 - Page 76


     
     1        enough people to work those hours.
     2
     3   Q.   You never had any problems doing any scheduling and getting
     4        the people in when you wanted them ever; never had a
     5        problem with people not turning up; never had a problem
     6        with ---
     7        A.  There may have been ------
     8
     9   Q.   -- people needing to go home early, they needed to be
    10        covered; never had a problem with extra work on that you
    11        did not expect?  Surely, you had all those problems, yes?
    12        A.  There may have been odd, isolated incidents where one
    13        or may be two of the things occurred that you have
    14        mentioned, but we had sufficient crew in numbers and depth
    15        to cover for any instance of that nature.  So, for
    16        instance, if somebody rang in sick, then there was a number
    17        of people would be willing to come in and work that shift
    18        who were not under 18 if it necessitated working them past
    19        a specific time.
    20
    21   Q.   So a lot of people that were on your books were just
    22        hanging around waiting for a phone call, were they, to fill
    23        in whatever time was suitable for McDonald's?
    24        A.  No, that was not the case.  We actually operated a
    25        substitutes list of people who wanted to work extra hours,
    26        should the need be.
    27
    28   Q.   What are you saying?  Are you saying that where there was a
    29        need for people to work extra hours ---
    30        A.  I did not say -----
    31
    32   Q.   -- you had to concentrate on the over 18s which would have
    33        limited the number of people you had to choose from?  Is
    34        that correct?  That would have limited your choices, yes?
    35        A.  Only in the specific hours you have mentioned which is
    36        a very small percentage of the overall hours during which
    37        we operate.  You are only talking about the hours past
    38        10 o'clock for under 18 females and past 12 o'clock for
    39        over 18 males.  So, that is possibly five to 10 per cent of
    40        the total operating hours during which we work.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But they are at the end of shifts which
    43        provide more than five per cent of the hours, I think what
    44        is being put to you; you have this last shift where people
    45        work on to close ---
    46        A.  Yes.
    47
    48   Q.   -- or could well do; if you take something in the range of
    49        30 to 50 per cent, it means two out of every five of the
    50        people on your payroll, part-time and full-time, are under 
    51        18, and if you have got to ring round for someone to help 
    52        two out of five under 18, what is being put to you, it is 
    53        just going to be a fact of life with two out of five under
    54        18, you are going to run into a bit of a problem, and be
    55        tempted to let the 17 year old work on a bit longer.  That
    56        is what is being put to you.
    57        A.  OK.  In the first instance, the chances of actually
    58        having to ring somebody around on an average week would
    59        probably -- maybe you would have to do it once, maybe
    60        twice, maybe three times, during the whole week on a bad

Prev Next Index