Day 003 - 30 Jun 94 - Page 25
1 or more in this country?
A. At least, yes.
2
Q. What do you define as management level?
3 A. Assistant managers right up through restaurant
manager, moving on into middle management, supervision,
4 operations manager. In fact, many of those people who
started as members of staff in our restaurants are
5 franchisees today, having been given an opportunity to
earn for themselves in a business environment.
6
Q. At what level of employment does a person change from
7 being hourly paid to being paid a salary?
A. Normally, second assistant manager.
8
Q. That is in a restaurant?
9 A. In a restaurant, yes. Until then there are members of
staff, then there is an hourly paid group of managers
10 I call floor managers. Some other countries around the
world term them "swing managers", but that is where it
11 changes, moving from that level to second assistant.
12 Q. Right. Now may we pass on, Mr. Preston: You will have
noticed the heading to this passage: "No unions
13 allowed". I will come back to that. "To improve this",
that is to say, "low wages and minimal promotion
14 opportunities, long shifts in hot, smelly, noisy
environments", and so on, "through Trade Union negotiation
15 is very difficult: there is no union specifically for
these workers, and the ones they could join show little
16 interest in the problems of part-timers (mostly women. A
recent survey", ignore the survey, Mr. Preston, "of
17 workers in burger-restaurants found that 80 per cent said
they needed union help over pay and conditions. Another
18 difficulty is that the 'kitchen trade'", and "kitchen
trade" is in quotes, "has a high proportion of workers
19 from ethnic minority groups who, with little change of
getting work elsewhere, are wary of being sacked - as many
20 have been - for attempting union organisation".
21 I have two questions about that, Mr. Preston. I am going
to ask you more about your equal opportunities policy
22 later. Is it true that there is a high proportion of
workers from ethnic minority groups within your
23 organisation?
A. Well, there are certainly some, but I would say by and
24 large the employment profile of our restaurants pretty
much mirrors the society or the locale in which the store
25 is located. It rather typifies the location around it.
So if that is high, I suppose if we are in an all
26 caucasian area or an all black area, you would probably
find that to be the makeup the staff across the width and
27 breadth of the company.
28 Q. Then the next bit: "... are wary of being sacked as many
have been for attempting union organisation". Does
29 McDonald's, Mr. Preston, sack people for attempting union
organisation?
30 A. No, it has never been attempted here actually.
