Day 199 - 11 Dec 95 - Page 05
1 A. I think in the past employees of McDonald's had spoken
2 to the press and McDonald's felt that they had been
3 misinterpreted and things put out of context, and also that
4 the press was possibly anti-McDonald's and looking for any
5 little thing to pick on.
6
7 Q. But that was the reason they gave to you for not speaking
8 to the press?
9 A. Yes, basically, the press were anti-McDonald's and they
10 would twist and turn things to suit themselves.
11
12 Q. Could you talk to the press about promotions and charity
13 events, and things like that?
14 A. Not in any position as a Second Assistant, but the
15 Store Manager would be able to talk to the press about
16 charity events and functions, etc.
17
18 Q. "The work was bound to be greasy and high pressure because
19 it was fast-food work. Most people realise this when they
20 first join McDonald's. They realise that it is the sort of
21 job where there is no room for slackers.
22
23 Every evening careful calculations were done in order to
24 work out manning levels. This was done by the following
25 method. The tills in a McDonald's store can print out at
26 any given moment in time the amount of money that has been
27 taken during that day or since the last printout. It was
28 therefore possible to get an analysis from each till of how
29 much money was taken every hour. According to the Training
30 Manual, all the Store Manager was supposed to obtain such a
31 print out once every hour. By knowing the number of staff
32 employed each hour, it was possible to work out the takings
33 per head per hour. There was an optimum figure for such
34 takings per head per hour, which meant that the store was
35 running with exactly the right number of staff for that
36 particular hour."
37
38 The optimum figure which you have mentioned there, who set
39 that figure and how do you know about it?
40 A. Well, I believe it was set by Head Office and then
41 passed down to, I presume, then Supervisors, then to the
42 Manager and then on to the rest of the staff working under
43 him.
44
45 Q. So where did you hear about it from?
46 A. From the Area Manager. I was told what the optimum
47 levels were for our store and that is what we had to adhere
48 to.
49
50 Q. OK. "If the actual figure was higher than the optimum
51 target figure, then the store was under-staffed and more
52 staff ought to be taken on. If the level was below the
53 optimum number the store was overstaffed during that hour
54 and the levels had to be pruned. The effect of these
55 calculations was that the Manager would be able to predict
56 for each hour of the week how many staff he would need and
57 could therefore trim very finely his manning levels to suit
58 profitability.
59
60 I cannot remember what the optimum figure was for my
