Day 268 - 24 Jun 96 - Page 31


     
     1        Trade Unions -
     2        If a trade union did represent members of staff I feel that
     3        the staff member's career with McDonald's would not go very
     4        far or last very long.  However, all current complains are
     5        dealt with "on the inside" so people with complaints do not
     6        get a very fair deal.  If there was an external body who
     7        could handle matters for employees, complaints would be
     8        dealt with much more fairly.
     9
    10        When employees join McDonald's they are told that a meal is
    11        provided.  However, when I worked with McDonald's, the meal
    12        allowance worked on the following basis.  For every hour an
    13        employee works, 35p was allocated to him.  Therefore, if
    14        employee worked for 8 hours a total of £2.80 was allocated
    15        to him for his meal.  This £2.80 was then used to pay for
    16        his meal according to the retail price of the food.
    17        However, if the retail price of the food went up, the
    18        employee meal allowance did not.  Thereafter, a person
    19        would work the same hours, yet would be forced because of
    20        the price increase, to eat less.
    21
    22        This method is particularly silly when a very large person
    23        had to have the same amount of food as a very small person
    24        despite the fact that metabolic rates are totally different
    25        and a large person could not function as adequately as a
    26        small person on the same amount of food.  Considering the
    27        amount of food that is wasted during the day it seems
    28        extremely petty to stick so rigidly to such a rule.
    29        Flexible hours
    30        These become extremely stupid when a member of staff has to
    31        work a night shift and then is expected to return to a day
    32        shift after having very little sleep, considering that many
    33        night shifts did not end until 4 a.m.
    34        Food
    35        There have been known cases such as
    36        1.  A star from a crew member's badge has been found in a
    37        burger.
    38        2.  Tiny metal particles from the grill where meat patties
    39        are cooked have been found in a burger.
    40
    41        Staff members and managers are trained to retrieve such
    42        items including "additions" from the customer in order to
    43        remove all traces of evidence without arousing suspicion or
    44        antagonizing the customer.  McDonald's Restaurants Ltd.
    45        accept no liability.  If, for example, a person gets food
    46        poisoning and a complaint is made by the customer that a
    47        McDonald's milk shake was the cause, by ceasing to sell the
    48        milk shake immediately, McDonald's believe they would be
    49        accepting liability.  To avoid this scenario McDonald's
    50        continue to sell the potentially suspect beverage.
    51        Overall opinion
    52        Looking back over my time of employment with McDonald's
    53        Restaurants Ltd, when I initially entered the system I
    54        believe that what you put into the system was what you got
    55        out of system.  If you worked hard you were rewarded.  This
    56        was a system which I found was run according to the book in
    57        the North and Merseyside region where I was initially
    58        based.  However, upon transferring to the Midlands, I found
    59        discontent and racial disharmony was rife.  In theory, the
    60        McDonald's system is superb.  In practice, however, the

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