Day 121 - 04 May 95 - Page 59
1 MS. STEEL: I do not think it was 1989.
2
3 MR. RAMPTON: I do not mind what Ms. Steel thinks. What
4 Ms. Steel has pleaded is that in or around 1989 at the
5 Northfields West Midlands branch of McDonald's an employee
6 under 18, Gary Davis, worked in excess of 39 hours in one
7 week on a number of occasions.
8
9 MS. STEEL: Whatever it is, the point is that every single
10 incident that we have pleaded which spanned from the early
11 1980s to the early 1990s miraculously there are no crew
12 records at all, or maybe one or two pages. I think it is
13 only reasonable to find out whether the Company has any
14 policy on keeping documents.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why not put a particular example. Pick on
17 Gary Davis, say what kind of record it is you particularly
18 want and say how long would he expect that to be kept, if
19 Mr. Nicholson knows. What I am concerned about is when we
20 just have general enquiries about procedures and I cannot
21 see what it is directed at.
22
23 MS. STEEL: The only thing is, because there are so many
24 different pleadings, it is actually easier to find out if
25 there is a general policy and then we can go back to the
26 specific pleadings and say that was within five years so
27 why have we not got anything on that, rather than doing
28 each one individually which, I do not know, would just
29 probably take longer in the long run.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You must put a kind of record because I can
32 imagine it varies between what kind of record it is. I can
33 see, for instance, if it is an accident. It might be kept
34 for a certain period of time which the Company has adjudged
35 a circumspect period to keep a record of an accident in
36 case there is some kind of claim. With regard to how much
37 someone was paid or how many hours they worked it might be
38 a much lesser period of time. I would be surprised if
39 there was a rule in any company that all records of
40 whatever kind and to whatever they relate are all kept for
41 the same period.
42
43 MS. STEEL: When somebody applies for a job at McDonald's, if
44 they have had a job at McDonald's previously, the store
45 they are applying to has to get in touch with the old
46 store, do they not?
47 A. No. What would happen is they would go forward to
48 payroll and that would throw out the fact that they have
49 worked for us before.
50
51 Q. What would be kept apart from their name?
52 A. In the payroll department that is all that would be
53 kept.
54
55 Q. Just their name ----
56 A. Their payroll number and their name of the store they
57 worked at, when they started and when they left. That
58 information can be retrieved from payroll going back, I
59 would have thought, on their computer four/five years;
60 probably longer.
