Day 196 - 06 Dec 95 - Page 26


     
     1        was a thing we all got on with.
     2
     3   Q.   Did you have the same attitude to the labour costs cutting
     4        or was it just the food costs?
     5        A.  All costs.  There was no change in attitude to hitting
     6        budget, being above budget, being a profitable store.  The
     7        difference in the managerial way that it was applied was
     8        the main change.  Where before we tended to work as group
     9        of people towards one aim, it then changed where one person
    10        would, say: "You are not doing this officially.  I want you
    11        to do these targets.  Unofficially carry on but if I catch
    12        you, you will get the blame for it, I will not", whereas
    13        before we had backing or unofficial backing.
    14
    15   Q.   How do you know that unacceptable practices that went on,
    16        the food watering down, the illegal hours worked, the
    17        clocking ----
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Ask your question and then I will have a
    20        suggestion to make.
    21
    22   MR. MORRIS:  How do you know they were known to your superiors,
    23        I do not just mean Area Supervisor?
    24        A.  I have no way of knowing if they were definitely known,
    25        but we were known for an area that had good results.  They
    26        must have been aware we were doing something other people
    27        were not.  I always got the impression that as long as we'
    28        chief the aims no questions were duly asked.  If you did
    29        not actually do what was asked then you tended to get
    30        stamped on, so to speak, but as long as you actually
    31        achieved what they wanted then no one seemed to ask that
    32        many questions above you about why you were doing it.
    33
    34   Q.   But did they examine your books and all that stuff?
    35        A.  Very rarely.  The results were really judged on the
    36        figures that we actually put, so it was more a case of us
    37        giving figures or percentages in and then they looked at
    38        those figures as opposed to someone coming down.    I mean,
    39        all inventories and audits were either done by my assistant
    40        or with the Supervisor being there, so all auditing was
    41        done at branch level.  Very rarely someone from above would
    42        come in and sort of question those figures.
    43
    44   Q.   Would people from higher levels of the Company learn what
    45        was really going on in the store through doing their store
    46        audit and full field audit and things like that?
    47        A.  No, because, as I said before, there are two types at
    48        McDonald's: There is the manual, what happens at training,
    49        and what happens on the full fields and audits, and there
    50        is what happens when those things are not going on.  You 
    51        know when a full field is going to happen, if not you are 
    52        notified.  You normally find out the day before it is going 
    53        to happen.  You are ready for it.  You have your people
    54        on.  So it tends to be a time when you perform at your best
    55        because you know they are happening.  Then what actually
    56        happens when they are not there is slightly different.
    57        There are two or I felt there were definitely two distinct
    58        lines.  There was the book, what happened when people came
    59        down and visited you, and how the stores were run when you
    60        were left on your own.

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