Day 195 - 04 Dec 95 - Page 23


     
     1        soon after I started work at Colchester McDonald's.
     2        I remained in this position for nearly two years until
     3        I left the store.  I was given this job by Ray Coton
     4        (Assistant Manager) with the full knowledge of Mark Davis
     5        (the Store Manager).
     6
     7        In this capacity, I recall carrying out such maintenance
     8        operations as changing light bulbs, replacing fluorescent
     9        tubes, fitting electric plugs and fuses, etc. etc.
    10        regularly.  This was obviously potentially dangerous as
    11        I was not a trained qualified electrician."   Did you have
    12        any training at all?
    13        A.  None whatsoever.
    14
    15   Q.   "Despite the top Managers' full knowledge of this fact,
    16        they did not provide any training for me in any form.
    17        Neither did they, to my knowledge, ever carry out safety
    18        checks on electrical equipment after being fixed by me."
    19        A.  It should read "carried out" obviously -- sorry, no,
    20        that is correct.
    21
    22   Q.   That is OK?
    23        A.  Yes, that is OK.
    24
    25   Q.   "3.  A few other points:  3.1.  In his statement (points 8,
    26        15, 25 etc.) Mark Davies claims that Colchester McDonald's
    27        had a taxi account for its staff who worked on the close.
    28        This is something completely new to me.  At no time during
    29        my employment at McDonald's was transport to or from work
    30        paid for me by the Company.  Neither did I know any other
    31        crew member whose taxi fare was paid; whether on a close or
    32        not.
    33
    34        3.2.  Sidney Nicholson's description of rap sessions (32)
    35        is not exactly what I have experienced.  During my time at
    36        Colchester store, rap sessions were not announced long
    37        enough in advance, so few people knew about them whenever
    38        they happened.  As far as I can remember, it was not
    39        the 'nominated members of the crew' who met but those who
    40        happened to be around or on their break at the time or were
    41        somehow dispensable when the sessions occurred.
    42
    43        Generally speaking, the organisation of these sessions was
    44        much more haphazard than Sidney Nicholson suggests.  In
    45        addition, I recall attending a rap session which was
    46        chaired by Frank Stanton (our Area Supervisor).  It is
    47        therefore not always true that rap sessions were conducted
    48        by Supervisors from another region.
    49
    50        In any case, any McDonald's Manager, whether from your own 
    51        area or not, was regarded by the crew as a 'company man' 
    52        towing the company line.  Very few regarded a rap session 
    53        as a forum for communicating their grievances or putting
    54        forward their real views, criticisms and demands.  They
    55        generally did not trust the Managers and believed that
    56        whatever they said in these sessions would eventually be
    57        relayed to the Managers at their own store who could give
    58        them a very hard time for any serious criticism.
    59
    60        For these reasons, these sessions were not generally taken

Prev Next Index