Day 139 - 21 Jun 95 - Page 31
1 occurs. It has nothing to do with what McDonald's is doing
2 or is not doing.
3
4 Q. Were not you concerned when you found hundreds of
5 violations of child labour laws in one particular
6 franchisee's stores?
7 A. We did not find hundreds of violations. We saw that
8 his process and his safeguards to ensure that any
9 violations would not occur were not up to what we would
10 consider appropriate. It is incumbent upon our
11 owner/operators to review what is happening on a constant
12 basis, not take their eye off the ball, and ensure that
13 everything is going the way it should go.
14
15 Q. Did you change your inspection systems or procedures or
16 organisation after this circumstance?
17 A. No, we did not. We provided him with some additional
18 training that he had previously had. We provided his
19 managers with additional training. We checked out the
20 systems that should be in place. We noted where, in fact,
21 he may not have done everything he should have. It was a
22 matter of keeping your eye on the ball. He had been a fine
23 operator for many, many years, doing many things extremely
24 well; and, for one reason or another, he had taken his eye
25 off the ball; and we were getting his focus back where it
26 should be.
27
28 Q. If your inspection systems had failed to discover what the
29 state had discovered, how do you know that he had his eye
30 on the ball before, previously?
31 A. Because the state and the local authorities had been in
32 there on many, many occasions, and we had been in on other
33 occasions. The inspection that took place by the local
34 authorities was no different than the periodic inspections
35 that had occurred in prior years.
36
37 Q. Did you send out any memos to other stores about compliance
38 with child labour laws as a result of this incident?
39 A. No, no memos went out. Our nature is to communicate
40 verbally, but not send memos.
41
42 Q. Did you communicate verbally to all your 10,000 stores in
43 America -- or 8,000 it was at that time, or something --
44 about the need to comply with child labour laws?
45 A. On an ongoing basis, we provide training, we provide
46 communications; and we would have added the McCale
47 situation to our communications, saying: "This happened
48 because someone took his eye off the ball. This is
49 something that should not happen."
50
51 Q. When you communicated this to other stores round the
52 country, about what had happened at McCale -----
53 A. Excuse me? What was the last thing?
54
55 Q. When you communicated what had happened at McCale to
56 McDonald's stores nationally, what -- can you remember --
57 did you actually say?
58 A. We said that the local authorities had come in, had
59 found indications that records were not being properly
60 kept, that the normal safeguards that all of them were
