Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 15


     
     1        because in either case the departure during the course of a
     2        year, for whatever reason, will increase the turnover
     3        figures.
     4
     5        That, we submit, is a very significant consideration when
     6        one looks at the turnover figures, for the reason that the
     7        number of under-21 part-timers must be a very large
     8        proportion of McDonald's hourly paid workers.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
    11
    12   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, if there were, independently of the
    13        turnover figures, evidence -- I mean direct evidence which
    14        your Lordship was willing to accept -- that, for example,
    15        conditions in the restaurants were typically very bad, then
    16        one might be able to say: put two and two together, look at
    17        the numbers of young part-timers who must be leaving, it is
    18        sensible and it is safe to infer that at any rate one
    19        reason for such large numbers of departures is the
    20        conditions.  Absent such independent evidence, and given
    21        the high proportion of young part-timers in the workforce,
    22        the inference cannot safely be drawn, as it could have been
    23        if the proportions of part-timers and full-timers were
    24        reversed.
    25
    26        The other feature which bears on young people working
    27        part-time is of course the seasonal fluctuations in
    28        McDonald's business.  It makes it more likely that people
    29        will work for a short time during the course of a year at
    30        different times, go away, and perhaps come back the next
    31        year.  Then if one adds to that this consideration --
    32        again, drawn from the evidence -- that there is no
    33        evidence, so far as the 20 or 30 percent of the full-timers
    34        is concerned, that they do leave in large numbers.  On the
    35        contrary:  the evidence of the witnesses in this case,
    36        though anecdotal, would suggest a different tendency
    37        entirely, that the full-timers tend to be older and that
    38        they tend to stay often several years.  That is true not
    39        only of the Plaintiffs' witnesses, but of a number of the
    40        Defendants' witnesses as well.
    41
    42        Your Lordship will get at the beginning of next week a
    43        tabular summary of what I will call the McDonald's careers
    44        of each of the Defendants' witnesses, from which that will
    45        become apparent.
    46
    47        My Lord, then finally on this question, specifically in
    48        relation to pay:  it is obvious that if a youngster is
    49        living at home or is being supported by his parents, or
    50        both, he does not need the money in the way that somebody 
    51        who depends upon the job for their livelihood does.  It may 
    52        very well be a first job.  So far as people -- school 
    53        leavers and so on -- who are not working full-time, and
    54        also students (which is a point made by one of the
    55        witnesses, I cannot remember which), they will not be
    56        paying any tax, either.
    57
    58        Then, if one reflects that one is looking at the large
    59        majority of McDonald's hourly paid workers when one talks
    60        about such people, young part-timers, one is perhaps

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