Day 179 - 30 Oct 95 - Page 12
1 Q. What year -- I think we heard it was 1987. You were there,
2 were you, when it was -----
3 A. It was voted Store of the Year after I had moved to
4 Milton Keynes, but I had worked there for 11 months of that
5 year.
6
7 Q. So it was Store of the Year for the time that you worked
8 there?
9 A. 11 months of that year.
10
11 Q. Just in your own words, what does that mean, McDonald's
12 Store of the Year?
13 A. It is an honour, presumably. The store gets a plaque,
14 and that is about it. I would not really know anything
15 more than that. The Manager, obviously, is rewarded and
16 stands on the stage at the conference, as far as
17 I understand.
18
19 Q. It may be an obvious question, but it is an accolade to
20 store practices?
21 A. Yes. For instance, you would send postcards, some
22 stores would send you postcards: "We were Store of the
23 Year. What about you", this kind of thing, sent to all the
24 other stores. It was something to be proud of.
25
26 Q. At the Colchester store, we have heard how "hustle" is a
27 thing that is marked on the crew forms that are filled in
28 about their performance. Could you explain what "hustle"
29 meant and how it was used?
30 A. "Hustle" meant, to me, fast work. If you told someone
31 to hustle, you were telling them to work faster. If they
32 were on till: hustle, run, go on, get the queues down, run
33 -- this kind of thing -- hustle.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause. Get the what down?
36 A. The queues, the queues at the till.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The queues down.
39
40 MR. MORRIS: What about in other areas of the store?
41 A. Hustle would be cleaning the back area faster. It was
42 basically: "Work faster; you are not working fast enough."
43 That was hustle.
44
45 Q. Do you have any concern at all about this, looking back?
46 A. If someone has not been trained sufficiently, or even
47 if they have, the speed you are expected to work, it is
48 inevitable that you would have small accidents, burns or
49 cuts or whatever, or people sliding and falling over on the
50 tills.
51
52 Q. You referred in your statement to blocked drains. Can you
53 explain how these came about and why?
54 A. There was a specific problem at the Colchester store,
55 in that the filtering machine had broken. So, to empty the
56 vats, the oil fryers had to be emptied much more often,
57 because they were unable to be filtered.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Pause there. Yes?
60 A. So, on occasions, there were not enough waste oil
