Day 195 - 04 Dec 95 - Page 07
1 you just explain what you mean by management when you have
2 not named particular people?
3 A. When I refer to "management", I refer to them
4 collectively as meaning that any Manager that I talked to
5 from Store Manager down to Floor Manager, because that is
6 what we were -- when I was working at McDonald's that is
7 what we were told, your first line of contact is Floor
8 Managers. So we always regarded them as Managers and what
9 they said stood for what management said.
10
11 Q. So when you say "management" it is any one from any level?
12 A. Manager.
13
14 Q. "I said that whenever I was going to be required to work
15 later than my scheduled hours, I wanted advance notice so
16 as to be able to inform my wife. Unfortunately, this
17 procedure was not followed by McDonald's. On one
18 particular occasion when I was asked to work late without
19 having been given notice, I was so annoyed by this that I
20 protested and in fact got three or four other crew members
21 to join in with my protest. We were all campaigning
22 against having to work late shifts without notice. We were
23 not complaining about late shifts per se. The day after
24 this event, Trudie Jones took me to one side and told me in
25 no uncertain terms that 'We do not want such protests
26 here'.
27
28 With regard to the story in The Guardian article about
29 McDonald's closing a store and dismissing the entire staff
30 because they formed a union, I had definitely heard this
31 story independently of The Guardian. I heard it from my
32 sister who worked in the Woolwich McDonald's. When
33 I mentioned this story to members of the management at the
34 Colchester store, they neither confirmed nor denied that it
35 was true.
36
37 In my store, full-time staff were scheduled for two main
38 shifts - 7 a.m. to 3.00 or 4 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 12 p.m..
39 People on the late shift were meant to finish at 12.00",
40 midnight, sorry that is 12 midnight; it does not say
41 midnight, "since the store closed at 11 p.m."
42 A. Yes.
43
44 Q. "(Except on Fridays and Saturdays when it closed at
45 12.00 p.m.). When McDonald's calculated the amount of time
46 that we were allowed for our break and the amount of food
47 that we were allowed to take during that time, they based
48 their calculations on the number of hours we were scheduled
49 to work and not the number of hours we actually did work.
50 Consequently, employees who worked extra time beyond their
51 scheduled shifts did not get the correct amount of break or
52 food.
53
54 When I was working the late shift, I would quite often not
55 finish until 3.00 to 4 a.m. At some times of the year,
56 this would occur as regularly as two or three times a
57 week. Late finishes like this also occurred wherever there
58 was going to be a visit from the Head Office or Area
59 Supervisor. Somebody from Head Office often came once
60 every two weeks and the Area Supervisor might appear as
