Day 303 - 19 Nov 96 - Page 20
1 their workers and it is all kind of couched in positives,
2 no doubt to encourage a kind of feel good factor, but it
3 does reveal some quite glaring lapses.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I personally cannot see any difficulty in
6 having it couched in positives. It depends what the
7 purpose is. It seems to me it is perfectly legitimate to
8 ask the question in terms of what should happen, and then
9 look at your answers, and if a minority of people answer in
10 the affirmative, that is a negative comment, you can say.
11
12 I know what your point is, you have made it before, that
13 you say that asking a positive question, as it were, is to
14 encourage a positive answer, but...
15
16 MR. MORRIS: Yes. Well, no doubt ----
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Then you go on to say, but look at the
19 figures.
20
21 MR. MORRIS: Yes, if you said -- yes, I am sure as an opinion
22 poll it would not be allowed or the conclusions to be drawn
23 from it would be affected by the way the questions are
24 being posed, and in the environment they are being posed
25 in, obviously in the store, so as an accurate view of
26 dissatisfaction, it is very much reduced in quality, this
27 survey, but....
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know.
30
31 MR. MORRIS: In any event, it does show some quite remarkable
32 things. One of the most remarkable things in it is that
33 only 82 per cent agreed that they get paid for all the
34 hours worked at McDonald's. In fact, the international
35 figure was 77 per cent, so McDonald's UK was doing better
36 than the international average at McDonald's as regards
37 that.
38
39 Only 52 per cent in the UK positively agreed that
40 I received my breaks when due, and 28 per cent positively
41 said that they did not. I mean, I do not know where you
42 can really get to with this questionnaire. Does that mean
43 they received none of their breaks when due or whatever?
44 I think really this ----
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: One approach might be to look and see where I
47 have actually got hard and fast evidence of what you would
48 say is a malpractice in a particular restaurant, and then
49 I suppose you could say "look at this, the figures would
50 confirm that as not being a one-off".
51
52 MR. MORRIS: I think really this document is only really helpful
53 in terms of an admission against interest that the
54 McDonald's have to recognise that some of this content
55 means that they know that there is, for example, people not
56 getting paid for all hours worked. That is a perceived
57 problem, substantial problem amongst, you know, a
58 percentage of their workers. But I do not really know
59 where it goes to. I am not going to concentrate on it any
60 more really. It does not really -- if I had written that
