Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 15
1 because in either case the departure during the course of a
2 year, for whatever reason, will increase the turnover
3 figures.
4
5 That, we submit, is a very significant consideration when
6 one looks at the turnover figures, for the reason that the
7 number of under-21 part-timers must be a very large
8 proportion of McDonald's hourly paid workers.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
11
12 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, if there were, independently of the
13 turnover figures, evidence -- I mean direct evidence which
14 your Lordship was willing to accept -- that, for example,
15 conditions in the restaurants were typically very bad, then
16 one might be able to say: put two and two together, look at
17 the numbers of young part-timers who must be leaving, it is
18 sensible and it is safe to infer that at any rate one
19 reason for such large numbers of departures is the
20 conditions. Absent such independent evidence, and given
21 the high proportion of young part-timers in the workforce,
22 the inference cannot safely be drawn, as it could have been
23 if the proportions of part-timers and full-timers were
24 reversed.
25
26 The other feature which bears on young people working
27 part-time is of course the seasonal fluctuations in
28 McDonald's business. It makes it more likely that people
29 will work for a short time during the course of a year at
30 different times, go away, and perhaps come back the next
31 year. Then if one adds to that this consideration --
32 again, drawn from the evidence -- that there is no
33 evidence, so far as the 20 or 30 percent of the full-timers
34 is concerned, that they do leave in large numbers. On the
35 contrary: the evidence of the witnesses in this case,
36 though anecdotal, would suggest a different tendency
37 entirely, that the full-timers tend to be older and that
38 they tend to stay often several years. That is true not
39 only of the Plaintiffs' witnesses, but of a number of the
40 Defendants' witnesses as well.
41
42 Your Lordship will get at the beginning of next week a
43 tabular summary of what I will call the McDonald's careers
44 of each of the Defendants' witnesses, from which that will
45 become apparent.
46
47 My Lord, then finally on this question, specifically in
48 relation to pay: it is obvious that if a youngster is
49 living at home or is being supported by his parents, or
50 both, he does not need the money in the way that somebody
51 who depends upon the job for their livelihood does. It may
52 very well be a first job. So far as people -- school
53 leavers and so on -- who are not working full-time, and
54 also students (which is a point made by one of the
55 witnesses, I cannot remember which), they will not be
56 paying any tax, either.
57
58 Then, if one reflects that one is looking at the large
59 majority of McDonald's hourly paid workers when one talks
60 about such people, young part-timers, one is perhaps
