Day 195 - 04 Dec 95 - Page 09


     
     1        not visit as often and later on he visited more often?
     2        A.  Yes.
     3
     4   Q.   "Where one of these inspections was scheduled, the store
     5        usually found out in advance and in order to get everything
     6        ship-shape in time, the crew invariably had to work very
     7        late into the night.  Officially, Head Office were not
     8        meant to know about these very late sessions.  McDonald's
     9        employees were meant to be able to keep the stores in good
    10        shape during scheduled hours.  However, I am positive that
    11        Area Supervisors and Head Office knew exactly what was
    12        happening but turned a blind eye to it.
    13
    14        I knew of cases where employees in my store worked as much
    15        as 26 hours in a row, e.g. Tracy Milleine who was not even
    16        18 years old yet and Steve Harney."  Can you just say, how
    17        did you know about her ---
    18        A.  How did I know about Tracy Milleine?
    19
    20   Q.   -- working 26 hours?
    21        A.  Because I worked on the night shift with her and I went
    22        home and the day after when I was on the morning shift,
    23        I came back and she was still working all the way through
    24        the night, and then she continued working the next shift as
    25        well.  So, she had, I think she had started at 12 o'clock
    26        mid-day worked until midnight through the night and the
    27        next shift.  So when I came back the next morning
    28        I actually saw her still working.
    29
    30   Q.   "This occurred where people were scheduled to work a late
    31        shift one day, the late shift extended on until 6.00 or
    32        7.00 in the morning and then they were scheduled to come
    33        back on duty at that time.  I myself worked occasional 16
    34        hour shifts - from 12 a.m. to about 4.00 a.m. I worked 10
    35        hour shifts very often.
    36
    37        I occasionally refused to work a late shift past the
    38        scheduled finishing time, or indicated that I did not wish
    39        to restart at 7.00 a.m. after a very late close.  I was
    40        told in such situations that I just had to because I was 'a
    41        flexible worker'.  Management would also cut the number of
    42        scheduled work hours of anyone who refused to do the extra
    43        hours on a late shift, etc.  This was done so that
    44        eventually the person could not survive on the money that
    45        he/she was getting from the job and would have to leave.
    46        I am positive that this technique was used directly for
    47        that purpose - crew members were told that if they did not
    48        comply with late closes etc. they would be given shorter
    49        scheduled hours or priority would be given to others when
    50        the shifts scheduling was being done.  Crew members, 
    51        therefore, had little choice but to comply. 
    52 
    53        I brought up the issue of the late closes at a rap session
    54        chaired by the Area Supervisor, that is, Frank Stanton.
    55        The Area Supervisor said that he cannot promise to give
    56        notice since sometimes he did not know himself, until
    57        shortly beforehand, that he would be calling.
    58
    59        It is incidents like that referred to above which enable me
    60        to be sure that the Area Supervisors knew only too well

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