Day 152 - 11 Jul 95 - Page 44


     
     1        it was somebody who had gone off and had not, sort of,
     2        specified they were coming back and just turned up and
     3        said, "Look, I want to work with you again", then that
     4        would be at your discretion whether you awarded them due to
     5        the fact that the contract had ended at that point.
     6
     7   Q.   So if he said, "I will be back at the end of term, keep my
     8        job for me if you can", then he would get what he went away
     9        with plus any additional rate?
    10        A.  Yes, he would, yes.
    11
    12   Q.   In your experience as a Manager and a Supervisor,
    13        Mr. Davis, there must be, I suppose, people who leave
    14        McDonald's because they do not like it; is that right?
    15        A.  There must be, yes.
    16
    17   Q.   Do they leave in large numbers, as far as you are aware,
    18        because they do not like it?
    19        A.  No, but there obviously must be some people who do not
    20        like the job.
    21
    22   Q.   Again, it is easy to work in percentages, but it can be
    23        misleading.  Are you able to give a rough guess at what
    24        sort of proportion of the workforces that you have had have
    25        left because they did not like it out of dissatisfaction?
    26        A.  No, no more than five, five per cent I would say.  That
    27        would be the maximum amount.
    28
    29   Q.   At any one time in Colchester do you have, again, a rough
    30        idea, as rough as you like, what proportion of your
    31        workforce would be on the basic starting rate?
    32        A.  It depends upon the time of the year.  Obviously, if
    33        you have just hired a lot of staff just before the summer
    34        months, then there would be a higher proportion.
    35        Obviously, if it was the more, sort of, even business time
    36        of the year, sort of, I do not know, between February and
    37        April maybe, then it would be steady.  So you would have a
    38        less proportion on the starting rate.  No more than a
    39        third, I would say, at any one time.  That would be the
    40        absolute maximum I would reckon, yes.
    41
    42   Q.   Would you rush out into the market at, say, times just
    43        before Christmas or just before the summer holidays and
    44        recruit droves of people all in one go or not?
    45        A.  No, we would like to stagger it.
    46
    47   Q.   How would you do it?
    48        A.  We would stagger it over the two or three months prior
    49        to the summer.  Obviously, you do not want to hire 10 or 15
    50        people all in one go.  One, the training becomes difficult; 
    51        two, you know, you do not want 15 new people around all at 
    52        the same time.  So you would stagger, sort of, three or 
    53        four one week, maybe two the next week, three or four the
    54        next week and stagger it like that, or maybe even, you
    55        know, that is probably a bit too close; probably stagger it
    56        even further, further than that.
    57
    58   Q.   Comment on this please, Mr. Davis, an allegation made with
    59        some frequency by the Defendants, that it is in your
    60        interests to have, as a commercial organisation, a high

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