Day 195 - 04 Dec 95 - Page 09
1 not visit as often and later on he visited more often?
2 A. Yes.
3
4 Q. "Where one of these inspections was scheduled, the store
5 usually found out in advance and in order to get everything
6 ship-shape in time, the crew invariably had to work very
7 late into the night. Officially, Head Office were not
8 meant to know about these very late sessions. McDonald's
9 employees were meant to be able to keep the stores in good
10 shape during scheduled hours. However, I am positive that
11 Area Supervisors and Head Office knew exactly what was
12 happening but turned a blind eye to it.
13
14 I knew of cases where employees in my store worked as much
15 as 26 hours in a row, e.g. Tracy Milleine who was not even
16 18 years old yet and Steve Harney." Can you just say, how
17 did you know about her ---
18 A. How did I know about Tracy Milleine?
19
20 Q. -- working 26 hours?
21 A. Because I worked on the night shift with her and I went
22 home and the day after when I was on the morning shift,
23 I came back and she was still working all the way through
24 the night, and then she continued working the next shift as
25 well. So, she had, I think she had started at 12 o'clock
26 mid-day worked until midnight through the night and the
27 next shift. So when I came back the next morning
28 I actually saw her still working.
29
30 Q. "This occurred where people were scheduled to work a late
31 shift one day, the late shift extended on until 6.00 or
32 7.00 in the morning and then they were scheduled to come
33 back on duty at that time. I myself worked occasional 16
34 hour shifts - from 12 a.m. to about 4.00 a.m. I worked 10
35 hour shifts very often.
36
37 I occasionally refused to work a late shift past the
38 scheduled finishing time, or indicated that I did not wish
39 to restart at 7.00 a.m. after a very late close. I was
40 told in such situations that I just had to because I was 'a
41 flexible worker'. Management would also cut the number of
42 scheduled work hours of anyone who refused to do the extra
43 hours on a late shift, etc. This was done so that
44 eventually the person could not survive on the money that
45 he/she was getting from the job and would have to leave.
46 I am positive that this technique was used directly for
47 that purpose - crew members were told that if they did not
48 comply with late closes etc. they would be given shorter
49 scheduled hours or priority would be given to others when
50 the shifts scheduling was being done. Crew members,
51 therefore, had little choice but to comply.
52
53 I brought up the issue of the late closes at a rap session
54 chaired by the Area Supervisor, that is, Frank Stanton.
55 The Area Supervisor said that he cannot promise to give
56 notice since sometimes he did not know himself, until
57 shortly beforehand, that he would be calling.
58
59 It is incidents like that referred to above which enable me
60 to be sure that the Area Supervisors knew only too well
