Day 130 - 26 May 95 - Page 47


     
     1   Q.   No, but he is now.
     2        A.  At the time he was Senior Supervisor.  He would have
     3        dozen of stores or so reporting to him.  To be honest, that
     4        is not a terribly senior position.  It is a full two grades
     5        below what he is now. Obviously in his new role, the
     6        assessment that was done in 1991, 1992, since we have now
     7        implemented all the recommendations and have moved on to
     8        further improvement, it is really not relevant to John's
     9        current role.
    10
    11   Q.   In 1992 he was Operations Development Manager?
    12        A.  Well ------
    13
    14   Q.   Which is someone in -----
    15        A.  It would have been even less relevant to him then.  In
    16        that he was a Department of one working on special
    17        projects.
    18
    19   Q.   The point is, Mrs. Barnes, that McDonald's -- is it not a
    20        fact -- buries criticisms at whatever level of the Company,
    21        and if any changes are made, attempts to adopt the moral
    22        high ground when, in fact, the reality is they only make
    23        improvements under great pressure?
    24        A.  That is absolute rubbish, absolutely.  We care very
    25        much about what we do.  You know, the Successful Health and
    26        Safety Management, that 1991 document, if we did not care,
    27        and if we did not want to be the best, we would not have
    28        started looking at it even before the HSE started an
    29        assessment.
    30
    31        We welcomed all the recommendations.  In fact, some of
    32        them, like hustle, we had implemented even before the
    33        report came out.  We would not have people like independent
    34        consultants advising us if we did not want to move forward
    35        and learn how we could improve.
    36
    37   Q.   Is that Chris Purslow, your independent consultant?
    38        A.  For health and Safety, Chris.
    39
    40   Q.   How long has he been your so-called independent consultant?
    41        A.  He has worked with me ever since I was appointed, but
    42        he also did some work for McDonald's prior to that as
    43        well.  He has worked with me since 1990.
    44
    45   Q.   Right, and before that he was also McDonald's consultant on
    46        health and safety?
    47        A.  Before that we had used him on occasions, yes.
    48
    49   Q.   He gets paid for that consultancy work?
    50        A.  At a consultancy rate, yes. 
    51 
    52   Q.   When he was working with you as an independent health and 
    53        safety consultant from 1990 and previously, did he condemn
    54        the hustle culture?
    55        A.  Well, I certainly do not know the details of the work
    56        he had done previously.  From my appointment in 1990, Chris
    57        was very much a guiding light in the early months because,
    58        as I have admitted, I knew very little about health and
    59        safety.  No, we did not focus in on hustle, we were looking
    60        more, as I have explained, at the new legislation, best

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