Day 188 - 15 Nov 95 - Page 26
1 material. So if you rushed around, and maybe the floor had
2 got wet or something, then there is the potential for
3 people to slip and slide. I never actually saw anybody
4 slide while I was working at the stores but, quite clearly,
5 it seems to me that that potential is there if there is
6 that kind of pressure to make people rush around; the
7 potential is there.
8
9 Q. "At the Croydon store" -- I will just carry on reading from
10 your statement -- "whilst working again" -- is that where
11 I was up to?
12 A. Yes.
13
14 Q. "At the Croydon store whilst working, again during the
15 lunchtime period, a tray of buns was dropped by a fellow
16 team member. The buns were retrieved from the floor and
17 quickly used.
18
19 "Although these were specific examples of poor quality
20 food, there was a general approach which belies the
21 McDonald's boast tender loving care and quality service
22 excellence (QSC). At the height of the rush, meat patties
23 often crumbled or broke into pieces. They were stuck
24 together by being sandwiched in the bun. Buns often got
25 stuck in the toaster and had to be poked out. The workers
26 would burn their fingers and hands doing this. If the buns
27 were not too badly crumbled, they were then passed on to
28 the dresser for use."
29
30 Almaz Anteneh said in the witness box -- she was the Store
31 Manager at the time, I believe -- that there was a spatula
32 available to get the buns out of the toaster. What do you
33 remember about that?
34 A. I think there was a thing that you poked the bun, but
35 sometimes the bun would go to go the back, so you would
36 have to, you know, dig through with the spatula or the
37 poker, whatever it was, to try and get the buns out. It is
38 a kind of -- I do not think I am suggesting for one moment
39 that people shove their hands into the toaster; it was just
40 that in doing this action you could just catch your hand or
41 your wrist on the equipment. So I do not think it is
42 actually having to put their hand into the toaster to get a
43 bun out, but they were having to poke around and jiggle
44 around and, in doing that, you could catch your hand there
45 and burn it.
46
47 Q. So, sometimes the hand would go sort of slightly partially
48 into -----
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, no. She has given her evidence.
51
52 MR. MORRIS: It is just that she has given hand signals.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have understood what she said.
55
56 MR. MORRIS: (To the witness): If your hands got burned, how
57 would they get burned -- just to clarify that?
58 A. By touching against the toaster machine, the toaster --
59 whatever it is called.
60
