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

Prev Next Index