Day 175 - 18 Oct 95 - Page 30
1 A. They do not know the system. They are not told,
2 either. If they ask, they are not really -- it is not
3 answered. We were told not to tell customers about that.
4
5 MR. MORRIS: You said in the next paragraph: "Pressure in busy
6 times meant that food which had fallen on the floor or
7 undercooked meat would be served." How do you know that
8 that happened?
9 A. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I was involved in
10 that activity myself. Because we were worked so hard when
11 it was busy, we were working -- the McDonald's word is
12 "hustle", which means that you are working to your
13 limitations, really; and you might be cooking food and
14 serving it so quickly that it is very easy just to turn
15 round and knock something and you have lost a whole tray of
16 burgers that have just come off the grill. So what you
17 would have to do is rescue what you could, and the pressure
18 is on you to save more than perhaps you really ought to,
19 from a hygiene point of view; and the Manager may turn
20 round and say, "I can't see that", in other words, inviting
21 you to break the rules. So you then rescue things that had
22 fallen on the floor because, otherwise, you would slip so
23 far behind it would get out of control; you would not be
24 able to keep serving the customers.
25
26 Also, it meant that sometimes people were up to the task of
27 working under that sort of pressure, and they could not --
28 they would not be able to cook the food properly, but if
29 they were the person on the grill and the food had to be
30 cooked, they would still be doing it and that food would be
31 sold even though it was inadequate.
32
33 It was quite normal for people to bring back half-eaten
34 burgers where they had suddenly realised the meat was raw
35 inside and they would come back and complain about it; and
36 then they would exchange it. In fact, many customers
37 seemed to accept this as the norm; they were used to it.
38
39 Q. When you say "quite normal", what do you mean by "normal",
40 that undercooked food would be brought back?
41 A. When I was working there full-time, I would see it
42 three or four times a week, just on the shifts when I was
43 there. People were not surprised by it.
44
45 Q. What did you do?
46 A. You would just offer them an apology and replace the
47 food. Sometimes people made more of a complaint and then
48 they went and spoke to the Manager; and, occasionally,
49 people would come in with letters from the McDonald's Head
50 Office, where they had written in to complain about the
51 standard of the store or the quality of the food, and they
52 were offered a replacement meal, and they would bring this
53 letter in and they would be given another meal.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: When you say under pressure, they could not
56 cook the food properly, what do you mean by that? I think
57 I know, but you tell me.
58 A. Well, the quantity of food that was being demanded at
59 the tills was hard to maintain by the staff, and the only
60 way to maintain that was for people to go into overdrive
