Day 154 - 13 Jul 95 - Page 20
1 A. I believe it was Company policy.
2
3 Q. Why was that?
4 A. I have no idea. I just accepted it at the time as
5 Company policy.
6
7 Q. You accepted it without question?
8 A. It seemed a reasonable policy.
9
10 Q. Why did it seem reasonable? (Pause)
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you have a positive feeling why it seems
13 reasonable, or are you just not minded to argue with it?
14 A. I have never really thought about it until this
15 moment. Obviously, you do not want one or two-year olds
16 working in your restaurant. It just seemed a logical cut
17 off, about school leaving age, 16.
18
19 MR. MORRIS: I think Mr. Nicholson said something to the effect
20 of -----
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I have that. If you think there is
23 another good reason, put it to the witness.
24
25 MR. MORRIS: No. That is fair enough.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It might not have seemed a matter that he
28 ought to give a lot of thought to, if he was just happy
29 with what was the Company policy.
30
31 MR. MORRIS: From time to time, people under school leaving age
32 have worked at McDonald's?
33 A. Have they?
34
35 Q. You do not know?
36 A. Well, they never have in any of the restaurants I have
37 been involved with.
38
39 Q. Do you sometimes have children under school leaving age
40 working work experience in your stores?
41 A. Yes, I believe we do. On occasions we have allowed
42 people to come into the restaurants and have work
43 experience. We are not employing them; they are coming in
44 to have a day, or whatever, work experience.
45
46 Q. They would work in any of the jobs, would they? They may
47 work, for example, on the grill?
48 A. I believe there is some legislation that means that
49 they would not work on the fry station.
50
51 Q. Just the fry station? They could work on grills, but not
52 the fry station?
53 A. I do not think we would put them on the grills.
54
55 Q. Why not?
56 A. From the point of view of extra safety. They are a new
57 person, you would not want them -- you know, you would
58 treat them with kid gloves, if you like.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: My experience of youngsters coming on work
