Day 303 - 19 Nov 96 - Page 20


     
     1        their workers and it is all kind of couched in positives,
     2        no doubt to encourage a kind of feel good factor, but it
     3        does reveal some quite glaring lapses.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I personally cannot see any difficulty in
     6        having it couched in positives.  It depends what the
     7        purpose is.  It seems to me it is perfectly legitimate to
     8        ask the question in terms of what should happen, and then
     9        look at your answers, and if a minority of people answer in
    10        the affirmative, that is a negative comment, you can say.
    11
    12        I know what your point is, you have made it before, that
    13        you say that asking a positive question, as it were, is to
    14        encourage a positive answer, but...
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  Well, no doubt ----
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Then you go on to say, but look at the
    19        figures.
    20
    21   MR. MORRIS:  Yes, if you said -- yes, I am sure as an opinion
    22        poll it would not be allowed or the conclusions to be drawn
    23        from it would be affected by the way the questions are
    24        being posed, and in the environment they are being posed
    25        in, obviously in the store, so as an accurate view of
    26        dissatisfaction, it is very much reduced in quality, this
    27        survey, but....
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not know.
    30
    31   MR. MORRIS:  In any event, it does show some quite remarkable
    32        things.  One of the most remarkable things in it is that
    33        only 82 per cent agreed that they get paid for all the
    34        hours worked at McDonald's.  In fact, the international
    35        figure was 77 per cent, so McDonald's UK was doing better
    36        than the international average at McDonald's as regards
    37        that.
    38
    39        Only 52 per cent in the UK positively agreed that
    40        I received my breaks when due, and 28 per cent positively
    41        said that they did not.  I mean, I do not know where you
    42        can really get to with this questionnaire.  Does that mean
    43        they received none of their breaks when due or whatever?
    44        I think really this ----
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  One approach might be to look and see where I
    47        have actually got hard and fast evidence of what you would
    48        say is a malpractice in a particular restaurant, and then
    49        I suppose you could say "look at this, the figures would
    50        confirm that as not being a one-off".
    51
    52   MR. MORRIS:  I think really this document is only really helpful
    53        in terms of an admission against interest that the
    54        McDonald's have to recognise that some of this content
    55        means that they know that there is, for example, people not
    56        getting paid for all hours worked.  That is a perceived
    57        problem, substantial problem amongst, you know, a
    58        percentage of their workers.  But I do not really know
    59        where it goes to.  I am not going to concentrate on it any
    60        more really.  It does not really -- if I had written that

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