Day 195 - 04 Dec 95 - Page 23
1 soon after I started work at Colchester McDonald's.
2 I remained in this position for nearly two years until
3 I left the store. I was given this job by Ray Coton
4 (Assistant Manager) with the full knowledge of Mark Davis
5 (the Store Manager).
6
7 In this capacity, I recall carrying out such maintenance
8 operations as changing light bulbs, replacing fluorescent
9 tubes, fitting electric plugs and fuses, etc. etc.
10 regularly. This was obviously potentially dangerous as
11 I was not a trained qualified electrician." Did you have
12 any training at all?
13 A. None whatsoever.
14
15 Q. "Despite the top Managers' full knowledge of this fact,
16 they did not provide any training for me in any form.
17 Neither did they, to my knowledge, ever carry out safety
18 checks on electrical equipment after being fixed by me."
19 A. It should read "carried out" obviously -- sorry, no,
20 that is correct.
21
22 Q. That is OK?
23 A. Yes, that is OK.
24
25 Q. "3. A few other points: 3.1. In his statement (points 8,
26 15, 25 etc.) Mark Davies claims that Colchester McDonald's
27 had a taxi account for its staff who worked on the close.
28 This is something completely new to me. At no time during
29 my employment at McDonald's was transport to or from work
30 paid for me by the Company. Neither did I know any other
31 crew member whose taxi fare was paid; whether on a close or
32 not.
33
34 3.2. Sidney Nicholson's description of rap sessions (32)
35 is not exactly what I have experienced. During my time at
36 Colchester store, rap sessions were not announced long
37 enough in advance, so few people knew about them whenever
38 they happened. As far as I can remember, it was not
39 the 'nominated members of the crew' who met but those who
40 happened to be around or on their break at the time or were
41 somehow dispensable when the sessions occurred.
42
43 Generally speaking, the organisation of these sessions was
44 much more haphazard than Sidney Nicholson suggests. In
45 addition, I recall attending a rap session which was
46 chaired by Frank Stanton (our Area Supervisor). It is
47 therefore not always true that rap sessions were conducted
48 by Supervisors from another region.
49
50 In any case, any McDonald's Manager, whether from your own
51 area or not, was regarded by the crew as a 'company man'
52 towing the company line. Very few regarded a rap session
53 as a forum for communicating their grievances or putting
54 forward their real views, criticisms and demands. They
55 generally did not trust the Managers and believed that
56 whatever they said in these sessions would eventually be
57 relayed to the Managers at their own store who could give
58 them a very hard time for any serious criticism.
59
60 For these reasons, these sessions were not generally taken
