Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 16
1 to 12. He reckons it is probably a little less than 75
2 percent. Anyway, it is the majority, he says, who are
3 under 21, so we will assume it is much the same as the UK,
4 which, no doubt, is no coincidence; it is part of their
5 systemic approach globally, their very carefully thought
6 out strategy for organising their business and making
7 maximum profits. He admitted that they positively recruit
8 youth. That was on day 124, page 13, line 37.
9
10 It was very difficult to understand his evidence on the
11 actual percentage of US workers that were from ethnic
12 minorities. I do vaguely remember there was some documents
13 on that, which I could not find.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, I think it remained confused, quite
16 frankly, because it was difficult to work out where women
17 were included as well as ethnic minorities by the sex, by
18 the gender.
19
20 MR. MORRIS: It was clearly a very large percentage, anyway.
21 I think that was pretty clear. Anyway, at the end of the
22 day it may not be relevant or important. But the
23 impression he gave anyway was certainly there was a very
24 large percentage of US workers from ethnic minorities.
25
26 MR. RAMPTON: The actual percentages are to be found in one of
27 the documents behind Mr. Stein's statement.
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. We got confusing oral evidence on it
30 though, did we not?
31
32 MR. RAMPTON: Oh, yes, certainly, because it is difficult to be
33 precise, speaking from the witness box. It is all there on
34 paper.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Anyway, the point is McDonald's say that
37 because they have an even-handed view of the relevance of
38 the gender of the worker or the colour of the worker, save
39 for the fact that in some areas they may prefer to have a
40 certain proportion of any ethnic minority of the
41 neighbourhood, you say the real reason is that these are
42 people who end up at the bottom of the labour pile, or have
43 more than their fair share of it.
44
45 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I mean, it really is a question of
46 interpretation really. They are admitting that they are
47 taking people that are representative of the area around
48 them who presumably are in the labour market for those
49 jobs, which is exactly our point. I am sure they are not
50 taking a representation of the children of the rich in that
51 area because those people obviously would be looking for
52 other kinds of jobs. But I cannot find that document
53 actually behind.... There seems to be a misunderstanding
54 about what the issue is on that subject.
55
56 Anyway, moving on, Mr. Beavers admitted that the -- well,
57 we already had a formal admission, I think, that the
58 Pennsylvania authorities cited 466 violations of child
59 labour laws at eight Philadelphia McDonald's stores run by
60 a franchisee. That was day 123, pages 55 onwards. But
