Day 154 - 13 Jul 95 - Page 34
1 that?
2 A. OK. We actively encourage employees to stay as long as
3 possible. One of the, I believe, most obvious examples of
4 that is service awards. We give three year, five year and
5 10 year service awards to people who stay a long time. If
6 we wanted people to leave at a sooner date than that --
7 that is just one example -- if that is the case, then why
8 on earth reward people for staying longer?
9
10 There are benefits which accrue to crew members the longer
11 they stay with the Company, over and above their legal
12 entitlement. The Company has things like private medicine,
13 PPP, things like that, for crew members who stay a while.
14 Why on earth would we put those types of benefits into the
15 system if we wanted crew to turn over and leave us? Why
16 would we have a promotion or a sort of a hierarchy which
17 crew could climb up, if the intent was for them to leave
18 soon after they started with the Company?
19
20 There is absolutely no benefit from encouraging people to
21 turn over and leave the Company. There is a cost to
22 turnover which substantially outweighs any possible benefit
23 that anybody might think of that you would get by having
24 crew that were inexperienced and not having to do the job.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
27
28 MR. MORRIS: Another benefit of high turnover is the fact that
29 if there are always people leaving McDonald's, it is easier
30 to impose discipline on staff, is it not, on crew members,
31 if they know that -- it is not unusual for McDonald's
32 people to just disappear or basically be given the nod to
33 get out and leave, because it is a very common occurrence?
34 A. I do not know how you can give somebody "the nod" to
35 leave. That is not a practice I have ever been a party to.
36
37 Q. Not nods, but there are ways in which to say to people:
38 "Your face does not fit; you have the wrong attitude" --
39 which of course is part of your formal Company policy, that
40 staff have to have the right attitude, as we have heard
41 already. I just put it to you that that is another benefit
42 of high turnover at McDonald's, that it gives more control
43 in the hands of management?
44 A. I have already said that we do not want high turnover.
45 So if that is a benefit, then it is not something we would
46 aim for; therefore, it does not apply.
47
48 Q. Do you know why -- you said that under-18s are something
49 like 30 to 50 per cent at Colchester?
50 A. Yes.
51
52 Q. Why did you want to recruit so many under-18 year olds?
53 A. Well, I do not think we specifically went out to
54 recruit under-18 year olds. That is what was available in
55 the marketplace; they were the people who wanted to come
56 and work with us at the time.
57
58 Q. So the majority of people applying tend to be under-18 year
59 olds, or young people anyway?
60 A. I would say the mixture of crew that we had was
