Day 131 - 06 Jun 95 - Page 56
1 Q. Just something that cropped up earlier on: in your
2 experience, which seems quite extensive, in working with
3 catering companies ---
4 A. Yes.
5
6 Q. -- hotel and catering companies, it was said earlier that
7 it was common sense that the fast-food sector or take-away
8 sector, or quick service restaurant sector, would employ
9 less people per meal than other parts, in general.
10 Obviously, there are exceptions?
11 A. In general terms, because somebody can produce, I do
12 not know, say 100 burgers an hour, if you look at that as a
13 meal, compared with an a la carte restaurant where you
14 might have six chefs which cover 40 covers a night, it is
15 obviously going to be very different. But you get into
16 arguments about "what is a meal", and all sorts of things.
17 But, in general, yes, I would agree with the principle.
18
19 Q. So the factor for the McDonald's operation, compared to the
20 non-quick service restaurant industry, the factor of
21 density of staff, if you like, is going to be something --
22 we are talking about four, five, six, or maybe even more,
23 times as many staff per meal are employed in the non-quick
24 service; it is quite a large factor that is the
25 difference?
26 A. I would have thought so, but I really do not know the
27 figures.
28
29 Q. You said that you do not do inspections at McDonald's?
30 A. No, not specifically.
31
32 Q. That is not your area of expertise that McDonald's uses
33 from you?
34 A. McDonald's do not ask me, as routine, to inspect
35 restaurants; that is absolutely right.
36
37 Q. Really, you focus on the systems that they have developed?
38 A. I tend to contribute to safety management as opposed to
39 the day-in day-out nitty-gritty -- if I can put it like
40 that.
41
42 Q. So have you been asked to monitor, for example, accident
43 books, I mean, to see what is happening on a fairly
44 widespread scale, in reality, in those books?
45 A. No, I have not been asked to do that. I do not see why
46 they would ask me to do that. I certainly have not been
47 involved in that at all.
48
49 Q. So you rely on your information about the nitty-gritty
50 reality for the employees at McDonald's ---
51 A. Well -----
52
53 Q. -- on McDonald's information to you?
54 A. Certainly, Jill Barnes would send me the accident
55 figures and we would discuss the annual statistics, and so
56 on. I have on a number of occasions (because this is part
57 of our standard training that we are doing these days)
58 actually stood and watched an operation for a couple of
59 hours, because I am actually doing a syndicate exercise in
60 the unit. So I know the operations in the unit very well,
