Day 310 - 04 Dec 96 - Page 22


     
     1        14 percent.  That is a point in time figure.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
     4
     5   MR. RAMPTON:   I am trying to see.  I have actually put them
     6        into the text somewhere.
     7
     8   MR. MORRIS:   It is page 39, bottom of.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    11
    12   MR. RAMPTON:   It is the top of page 40.
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    15
    16   MR. RAMPTON:   14 percent had only been there for less than
    17        three months, but everybody else had been there for three
    18        months or more.  What that suggests is that, yes, there are
    19        people who stay maybe three months; there are people who
    20        stay maybe six months; there are people who stay maybe nine
    21        months; and a lot of them, because the percentages for a
    22        year or more have dropped dramatically when one gets down
    23        from 86 percent to 47 percent; but if somebody is going to
    24        stay for three months or six months or nine months and then
    25        leaves, it is unlikely to be because the pay and the
    26        conditions are indifferent.  Much more likely it is a first
    27        job; they go off and get what, as they get older, they
    28        might regard as a job which is more suitable to their
    29        abilities.
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Does that not come to the same thing?  Does
    32        that not all point in the direction of the fact that they
    33        are prepared to take work at McDonald's because that is all
    34        that is available?  The pay and conditions are indifferent,
    35        so the moment they do get an opportunity to go somewhere
    36        else a fair proportion of them are off.  If the figures in
    37        1994 and 1995 were that 64 percent and 61 percent stayed
    38        for six months or more and 47 percent and 44 percent stayed
    39        for one year or more, then the ones who stay for less than
    40        six months must be turning over an awful lot, must they
    41        not, to get the turnover figures which one has across the
    42        board?
    43
    44   MR. RAMPTON:   Yes, but I do not see that that is a problem.  It
    45        is a rate for a job; it is not a rate for some other job.
    46        If people decide at the end of six months of working for
    47        McDonald's that they are going to go and do something else,
    48        which is perhaps more demanding or whose kind of work
    49        demands a higher rate of pay, that is fine.  That does not
    50        mean McDonald's pay for what is done at McDonald's is low. 
    51 
    52   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  In case I have not seen the real thrust 
    53        of your point, when we get to 42 and scheduling and the
    54        number of staff, you make your points about the number of
    55        staff on payroll.
    56
    57   MR. RAMPTON:   Yes.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Obviously, that has a significance, but
    60        I wonder just how significant it is.  I think the main

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