Day 118 - 01 May 95 - Page 44
1 ebb and flow of customer demand moves during the day. You
2 have your high hours and your low hours.
3
4 Q. I have just a little bit of difficulty with the whole
5 concept of part-time and full-time workers when there is
6 not a contract to work so many hours a week. I can see
7 that if you sign someone on and say you are going to work a
8 35 hour week, and they work seven hours a day, five days a
9 week, that, I understand, might be thought to be full-time
10 employment. Someone doing a similar job might work four
11 hours in the morning for five days week and work 20 hours,
12 and that would be in their contract and that would be
13 part-time work.
14
15 But all full-time and part-time, it seems to me, to
16 McDonald's means that full-time workers will normally work
17 39 hours or thereabouts and the part-time workers will
18 normally work significantly less hours?
19 A. Yes.
20
21 Q. But the one who normally works about 39 may equally well
22 only work 20 some weeks, and the one who is normally
23 part-time might equally well work 39 some weeks?
24 A. If they indicate that they wish to do that, that is
25 possible.
26
27 Q. If they wanted to?
28 A. Absolutely.
29
30 Q. You do not put them in a part-time box or a little
31 full-time box?
32 A. No, we ask them to indicate when they are taken on what
33 hours they would like to work on which days of the week.
34 As far as possible, we try to accommodate that. Then they
35 can vary that themselves, at their own request.
36
37 MS. STEEL: Do any of the hourly paid workers have guaranteed
38 hours?
39 A. Those that have been taken on full-time are guaranteed
40 full-time hours, 39 hours.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have misunderstood the situation then.
43
44 MS. STEEL: So, whatever circumstances, the Company guarantees
45 that they will be able to do 39 hours in a week?
46 A. Yes, if they have been taken on as full-time workers,
47 they will be guaranteed that 39 hours.
48
49 Q. Do they get a specific contract saying that?
50 A. No, they have indicated on their initial application
51 form what hours they want to work.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I do not think that is quite what
54 Ms. Steel is asking. If they have done that, do you
55 guarantee to pay them for 39 hours a week?
56 A. We guarantee them 39 hours work a week.
57
58 MS. STEEL: Where would that be communicated to them ---
59 A. When they are taken on.
60
