Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 42


     
     1        that restaurants have an annualised turnover rate of 35.4
     2        percent.  That is page 24, line 58.  And that was high in
     3        comparison with other catering sectors in industrial
     4        industries such as canteens in hospitals or factories or
     5        whatever.
     6
     7        So here we have a pattern that an industry where there is
     8        high turnover, such as the catering industry, restaurants
     9        have a high turnover compared to other parts of that
    10        industry and McDonald's has an extremely high turnover
    11        compared to that already high turnover compared to the
    12        average of a high turnover industry.  So it is a little bit
    13        like the pay situation in terms of comparisons.  Then there
    14        was some debate about that until page 26.
    15
    16        He did make a good point that the more the employee is
    17        paid, the more it costs to replace them.  That is a
    18        truism.  That is page 26, line 27.  So maybe it is
    19        fortunate for McDonald's that whilst they have a high
    20        turnover rate, they have very low pay.
    21
    22        Then on page 28 we came to the leaving percentage, the
    23        reasons for leaving document which I have got down as
    24        document D, but I don't know where it was behind - I think
    25        it was behind Lynne Mead - for the year 1993.  And
    26        Mr. Pearson, as an expert, kind of focused in on the parts
    27        that were quite clear.  He said some of the document was
    28        difficult to draw conclusions from.
    29
    30        I think he said that you cannot attribute the high turnover
    31        at McDonald's just from the 23 percent identified as
    32        returning to school or college, obviously not, because that
    33        is such a small percentage.  He said, at page 29, line 59:
    34        It is impossible to sustain the position, let alone prove
    35        it.  That is my addition, sorry.  It is impossible to
    36        sustain the position that high turnover is due to students
    37        going back to school based upon this information which is
    38        the company's own information.
    39
    40        Of course, that is the McDonald's line, which does not bear
    41         -- well, he says effectively their line is impossible to
    42        sustain, let alone prove.  So it is just the line which
    43        they give out for public consumption.  The reality is if 23
    44        percent, according to the company themselves, of reasons
    45        for leaving McDonald's are down to going back to college or
    46        school, and if, as they say, some people are coming back to
    47        McDonald's and returning to school and coming back again,
    48        if a substantial proportion of those 23 percent leaving
    49        surveys are the same people, that would mean even less of a
    50        percentage of McDonald's staff are the people that are
    51        doing this.
    52
    53        For example, if on average each one of those persons leaves
    54        and joins three times in a year, that would mean a third of
    55        that turnover 23 percent, say 8 percent of their staff
    56        would be students who are coming and going regularly in the
    57        year, and so featuring three times in the exit surveys
    58        towards the total of 23 percent.
    59
    60        So effectively, what we have is, according to McDonald's

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