Day 181 - 01 Nov 95 - Page 35
1 we looked at just recently this morning made it fairly
2 obvious that students feature very strongly in the
3 departing profile. It was a fifth, was it not? So, yes, I
4 am pretty aware.
5
6 Q. OK. Do you know also that the proportion of males to
7 females in McDonald's is roughly?
8 A. Yes, there is a table here that shows them.
9
10 Q. Do you know also that a proportion of those women are
11 mothers of school age children?
12 A. I would be surprised if you had such statistics.
13
14 Q. I am not asking you to think about statistics. I am asking
15 you to think about, what shall I call, human nature and
16 probability. If, Mr. Pearson, a substantial proportion --
17 whether we put a number on it or not perhaps does not
18 matter -- of the people at McDonald's are people who leave
19 at the end of the school term, in the case of a student,
20 and come back again at the beginning of the next school
21 term and so on, or in the case of mothers with children,
22 leave at the end of the holidays and come back again at the
23 beginning of the next holidays, you are going to get, are
24 you not, whatever the actual number, a number of what one
25 might call repeat people within your turnover figures, are
26 you not?
27 A. You certainly are, and I think that is one of the
28 inadequacies of the exit interview table which has been
29 presented, because it does not show this in all its
30 fullness, because whether or not this is true and how far
31 it is true is impossible to measure from the table that was
32 before us. I am prepared to accept that pen picture of the
33 workforce with considerable number of students, a
34 considerable number of women with dependents who look for
35 seasonal work ---
36
37 Q. That is right.
38 A. -- particularly term time work. I mean, term time work
39 is a standard category, is a well-known feature on catering
40 industry. So, I am sure that you must be right that
41 McDonald's would have its own share of term time employees.
42
43 Q. And it would also have people who like to do a stint before
44 Christmas to get some money for Christmas presents -- just
45 a stint -- and perhaps who would like to do a stint before
46 the summer holidays, so to get some money for the holidays?
47 A. Yes. But this is all quite possible, just how far the
48 workforce of McDonald's approaches the job as just a stint.
49 I mean, there is no evidence that I have seen to be able to
50 sort of put that into proportion. I mean, the exit
51 interviews could -- that survey could have picked up the
52 real reason for leaving for possibly four out of 10, for
53 whom I believe the categories are vague and insufficient.
54 I have no way of -- if you see what I mean -- I have no way
55 of really commenting on the proportionate relevance of the
56 description you have given.
57
58 Q. No. That is a question of evidence, Mr. Pearson.
59 I just wondered whether you accepted that one must not look
60 at these turnover figures as though they represented each
