Day 123 - 09 May 95 - Page 20

     
     1        consistent throughout the world.
     2
     3   Q.   And policies, would they be roughly the same in any
     4        country?
     5        A.  Policies would vary depending upon local laws and
     6        customs, so that policies would change.  I think the
     7        executive in charge, managing director of a particular
     8        country and his executives, would perhaps make certain
     9        judgments or decisions that they would deem appropriate for
    10        that particular area.  But for the most part, our
    11        management and operating philosophies are pretty much the
    12        same worldwide.
    13
    14   Q.   That would apply to employment conditions as much as to any
    15        other part of business, would it?
    16        A.  Yes, it would.
    17
    18   Q.   Does that apply to franchisees as much as to ones under
    19        direct control of the Corporation; they have to fall into
    20        line with your general employment policies or conditions?
         A.  Again, we provide them with pretty broad parameters in
    22        which to operate.  When they go through their initial
    23        training and continue training we give them as much
    24        information, guidance and counsel as we can, based on our
    25        experience in our restaurants, company-operated
    26        restaurants, and experience of many of the franchisees that
    27        are in business.  We are constantly updating our
    28        information to reflect, you know, changing conditions,
    29        advances in technology, that sort of thing.  So the
    30        franchisees have a pretty broad, pretty big playing field
    31        in which to operate.  We do not dictate to them what they
    32        should do with regard to employment, but we provide
    33        guidance and counsel and some pretty broad operating
    34        philosophy.
    35
    36   Q.   You set certain parameters within which they should
    37        operate?
    38        A.  That is correct.
    39
    40   Q.   You have had quite a lot of experience of that -- yes, you
         have worked in franchised stores?
    42        A.  Yes.
    43
    44   Q.   You have visited them and everything.  Would you say the
    45        conditions were worse or better than the McDonald's stores
    46        in the USA, were the conditions in the franchise stores, as
    47        far as employment conditions, worse or better or
    48        fundamentally the same?
    49        A.  What do you mean specifically when you say "employment
    50        conditions"? 
    51 
    52   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can we divide it up?  The conditions in which 
    53        the crew work, I would have thought, because the system is
    54        so similar, the floor plans of the restaurants, I suppose,
    55        are very similar, depending on the site it occupies, the
    56        equipment I assume is very similar, so I would have thought
    57        the general conditions of employment, apart from hours and
    58        pay, I would expect to be similar whether the restaurant is
    59        owned by McDonald's Corporation or by a franchisee; is that
    60        right or not?