Day 189 - 20 Nov 95 - Page 24
1 not that big.
2
3 Q. Over the page, it says something -- do you remember
4 anything about the crew room heating?
5 A. Not really. It is a long time ago.
6
7 Q. OK. On the next page, 966, at the top, it says something
8 about -- number 5: "The girls would like to work on the
9 grill more rather than the cash registers." Do you know
10 what that refers to?
11 A. Yes. People used to like to get variety by working in
12 different positions; and it was kind of male dominated.
13 You were supposed to work on everything, but the grills
14 tended to be run by mainly the male staff and certain
15 individuals on it, stuff like that.
16
17 Q. So, had there been any dissent about that from -----
18 A. There would be, because a lot of people just did not
19 want to work in the one position all the time; they get
20 bored and fed up, you know.
21
22 Q. Do you have any comment about performance-related pay, how
23 you felt about it at the time?
24 A. Yes. I thought it was unjust, because the pay related
25 was sort of granted on a number of things, like your
26 attitude towards work and stuff, and things like that, not
27 -- a lot of it, I suppose, your personality even came into
28 it, I suppose, for a lot of cases; and it was a graded pay;
29 it was what whatever the management thought you deserved.
30 So if, say, you personally did not get on with the manager,
31 then your pay did not go up correspondingly. Also, in
32 fact, if you got two -- there was a zero sort of pay rise;
33 if I remember right, if you got two of them in a row you
34 were sacked.
35
36 Q. If we look at this document here, which is a report by
37 McDonald's on what they called rumblings amongst the crew
38 of possible union activity -----
39 A. Where is that one, sorry?
40
41 Q. If you go back to 964: "The manager, Martin Coughlin,
42 brought to my attention" -- I presume this is Mike Mehigan;
43 it is not signed, but it has his name at the bottom -- "the
44 fact that there were some rumblings amongst the crew of
45 possible union activity."
46 A. Yes.
47
48 Q. He brought that to his attention on 12th February, 1979?
49 A. Yes.
50
51 Q. Then he goes on about various complaints or points made by
52 employees. Had there been rumblings?
53 A. Yes -- well, I will tell you.
54
55 Q. How did those become rumblings?
56 A. Several of us decided we wanted to join the trade
57 union, because we felt that we had sort of no protection
58 and such against, say, like the whim of a manager if he did
59 not like you, or whatever it was, you know. Then the fact
60 of pay and stuff like that. So we decided we would join
