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

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