Day 208 - 24 Jan 96 - Page 21
1 of complaint in the way he has just hinted at.
2
3 MS. STEEL: Right. Except that lack of complaints or lack of
4 records of complaints might be because nobody bothered to
5 write it down; whereas if someone wrote it down -----
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Absolutely. There are all sorts of comments
8 you could make; or you could say that people in the store
9 are so in awe of Managers they do not complain anyway.
10 Then one has to consider all those comments and come to
11 some kind of conclusion, if it is relevant or pertinent.
12
13 MS. STEEL: OK.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But, reflecting on it out loud, lack of
16 complaint might be (depending on all the circumstances) a
17 point which one is entitled to take into account.
18
19 MR. MORRIS: I mean, lack of complaint may in itself, if
20 something is established is happening such as performance
21 reviews, you know, being out of date regularly or
22 something, if you believe that has been established or
23 whatever, and there are few complaints about it, that in
24 itself can be a criticism of the Company that they are
25 creating an atmosphere where people are frightened to speak
26 out.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is another demonstration of really what
29 I have been saying.
30
31 MS. STEEL (To the witness): Did you used to read the rap
32 session notes when they came back?
33 A. There used to be a copy on the crew room notice board
34 and one on the Manager's notice board in the Manager's
35 office, so it was available to anyone to read.
36
37 Q. Right. But did you used to read them?
38 A. If I was on a break and I had nothing else to do, then
39 yes.
40
41 Q. It was not something that you thought was worth taking your
42 time over, then?
43 A. It would be an anonymous -- it is difficult for anyone
44 to work out problems such as the schedule, because they do
45 not know who said it, they do not know who is being abused;
46 they just know it has happened to somebody.
47
48 Q. Crew were paid for attending rap sessions, were they not,
49 so people would know who attended them; and you said that
50 everyone talked about it before they went in, anyway?
51 A. Yes. But you still do not know who made the actual
52 comment at the rap session. It could be any one of the
53 nine people, or the six people, or however many went.
54
55 Q. If you just go to page 221, please, in file 1, in the rap
56 session notes. The bottom question is: "What do you think
57 are the main reasons why crew leave McDonald's?" It
58 says: "Pressured environment." Did you read these notes,
59 do you remember?
60 A. Probably not.
