Day 118 - 01 May 95 - Page 38
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: I think it is tab 26, volume XII, if you go to page
4 640?
5 A. Yes.
6
7 Q. If you look at the note underneath the table it says:
8 "Where a worker is not supplied by the employer with
9 either full board and lodging or meals whilst on duty, the
10 rates of pay in", the chart, that is, "(1) above shall be
11 increased by 2.36p per hour for the first 39 hours worked
12 by him in any week". So, at that time, it was a condition
13 of paying wages that McDonald's paid that they got free
14 meals?
15 A. I will accept that.
16
17 Q. Yes?
18 A. Yes.
19
20 Q. Can we also note, or ask you, that on page 632 the
21 definition of "meal" in the middle -- it is just under
22 "London Area" ---
23 A. Yes, I see it.
24
25 Q. -- "means a meal of sufficient quality and quantity"; is
26 that correct?
27 A. Yes.
28
29 Q. The meal that McDonald's workers were able to get for free,
30 was that basically a typical meal -- burger, fries and a
31 soft drink?
32 A. No, there was no hard and fast rule on this. I said
33 the other day that Bob Rhea had a saying -- he was then the
34 Chief Executive Officer -- "Take what you want but eat what
35 you take", and I think back to when I did my month's
36 in-store training. I generally took a sandwich, some
37 fries, a drink and an apple pie. That was the then,
38 I think, the only -- and that was sufficient.
39
40 Q. Is it the general position that workers are allowed to take
41 the basic sandwich, fries and then soft drink and, in fact,
42 McDonald's workers have been sacked for taking additional
43 food?
44 A. No, not to my knowledge. The only cases I can bring to
45 mind where they have been sacked over food is when they
46 have waste it or where they have given it away for
47 nothing. That is the common occurrence, but I honestly
48 believe that in -- I cannot talk about franchisees because
49 they all have their own sets of rules, but in company owned
50 stores the general rule was: "Take what you eat but eat
51 what you take".
52
53 Q. So if any worker has ever been sacked by McDonald's -----
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why do you not divide it up, because the
56 trouble is if you take an incident anything can happen
57 anywhere. It does not necessarily help you as to what the
58 general practice is; it may be do but, equally, it may
59 not.
60
