Day 303 - 19 Nov 96 - Page 31


     
     1        someone resign".  He said "I once witnessed a manager
     2        randomly clock time from people's clock card reports just
     3        to reduce labour".  That is labour costs.
     4
     5        He stated that the illegalities and abuse of entitlements
     6        to breaks and things like that were considered "good
     7        manager practice", and complained that the store was
     8        regularly understaffed.  Pressure to achieve targets for
     9        food yields, Mr. Logan told the court, resulted in the
    10        occasional use of out-of-date buns and shake mixtures being
    11        watered down.  Workers were expected to hustle, including
    12        to run while working.  Machinery and electrics were not
    13        properly repaired.
    14
    15        As we have heard in great detail, at one period essential
    16        safety devices were removed from faulty electrical circuits
    17        to ensure that food production and sales continued as
    18        normal despite the grills being in a "dangerous
    19        condition".  And the removal of residual current devices
    20        would be an offence by the Company which could lead to
    21        legal action, as we have heard, with the prohibition notice
    22        issued after Mark Hopkins was electrocuted, because it
    23        would in itself lead to a risk of serious injury.
    24
    25        He pointed out how during busy periods in particular the
    26        problems with the machinery often led to customer
    27        complaints about raw and undercooked meat products; yet he
    28        pointed out that the Company was able to find a substantial
    29        amount of money, whether it was a quarter of a million or
    30        £300,000, for a face lift for the lobby area, not the
    31        kitchen.  On two occasions he recalled how sewage came up
    32        through the drains into the kitchen area and people had to
    33        continue preparing and cooking food.
    34
    35        I think that, you know, when we listen to all the evidence
    36        from -- when you compare the evidence from different
    37        stores, a pattern clearly emerges which is hard to
    38        comprehend in some ways without the central fundamental
    39        thing that runs throughout, no doubt, McDonald's stores the
    40        whole world over, which is the obsession with low wage
    41        costs, and it relates also to food costs as well, because
    42        why would McDonald's want to serve undercooked food.
    43
    44        It is not that they positively want to serve undercooked
    45        food, but that the staff and the managers are under
    46        pressure to cut costs to the bone, and therefore they
    47        perceive they have no alternative but to be understaffed,
    48        to cut corners in the procedures and the cooking practices
    49        or whatever and no doubt it is all for the benefit of the
    50        shareholders at the end of the day.
    51
    52        So again, you know, it is not a personal defect from any of
    53        the witnesses that McDonald's have called to court.  We are
    54        trying to show, with our testimony, our evidence in this
    55        part of the case, in fact the whole of the case but in this
    56        part of the case in particular, how the problem is one of a
    57        system at which money is the centre of what really counts
    58        at McDonald's.  And, of course, image to the customers.
    59        That is really the two parts, that is what important to the
    60        company.

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