Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 35
1 original statement. He was accompanied by a solicitor on
2 behalf of McDonald's and an area supervisor, so it was
3 hardly a secret visit so far as the staff working there
4 would have been concerned, and presumably management as
5 well.
6
7 On page 9 he explains - line 10 - I was not granted
8 permission to discuss with crew some of the issues which
9 are in contention, including staff views on trade unionism
10 in the company, et cetera, et cetera, staffing levels,
11 shift arrangements, working hours, overtime, everything
12 really, health and safety. None of these was he allowed to
13 discuss with crew. In fact, he was not allowed to discuss
14 anything with crew, was the impression I got, which I think
15 is completely outrageous, as an expert. And it also
16 means.... Well, two things.
17
18 First of all, it does point to McDonald's paranoia and fear
19 of letting their workers talk to an independent source,
20 talk about their views and experiences, and also it does
21 indicate their reluctance in allowing any independent
22 examination of their conditions of work.
23
24 He was shown some documents but not time schedules and
25 clock cards, which are the important ones, which we believe
26 would have shown of course glaring breaches of policy and
27 law, as the ones that we saw from Bath show.
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: By the way, I am extremely relaxed about
30 what people wear or do in court, but I notice the bottom
31 legend on the turn-up of the word processor at the back. I
32 am not going to ask for it to be taken off. If it is
33 turned up like that, it is virtually a challenge, so if it
34 just kept down, it would be easier.
35
36 MR. MORRIS: Has that affected your concentration on what I
37 have been saying?
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. You know what I mean, whatever you
40 think about the subject.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: I did not know it was there, sorry.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not suggesting it is you.
45
46 MR. MORRIS: So where were we? Yes, so he was not allowed to
47 observe the restaurants working at their peak, but he was
48 still - this is on page 9 - still struck by the intense
49 concentration of effort by employees and observed front of
50 house staff skip running in order to complete the delivery
51 of orders to customers within the required service times.
52
53 So the pressure was on even though it was not at the peak
54 period and he had not been allowed to see them at their
55 peak period. In fact, he later says he was only allowed
56 two or three minutes to observe the kitchen area, which is
57 a completely inadequate facility given to an expert making
58 a report for a court case such as this.
59
60 He said that he saw the back of house areas - this is on
