Day 143 - 27 Jun 95 - Page 15
1 at least two of its employees had recently had automobile
2 accidents as a result of falling asleep while driving home
3 after working late shifts". You cannot help us whether
4 that was in that particular store or whether that was
5 something in ----
6 A. The "defendant" refers to McDonald's and the management
7 who would have been in Salem Oregon. Salem, Oregon -----
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, just pause. You see, the judgment --
10 there may be other parts which are not -- says the
11 "defendant" which is McDonald's -- it is McDonald's
12 Restaurants of Oregon Incorporated, an Oregon Corporation.
13 What is McDonald's Restaurants of Oregon?
14 A. The way it works, my Lord, is in each state generally
15 the McOpco stores may very well be -- I am starting to give
16 you some legal stuff, but I am not sure -- I believe they
17 incorporate the McOpco's in that particular state, if you
18 will.
19
20 Q. So they are operating companies in each state ---
21 A. That is correct, my Lord.
22
23 Q. -- essentially, are they?
24 A. Yes.
25
26 Q. But all of which are subsidiaries of McDonald's
27 Corporation?
28 A. Yes, my Lord.
29
30 Q. So what 13 has said and what page 2 has said is that at
31 least two of the McDonald's Oregon employees have recently
32 had automobile accidents as a result of falling asleep
33 while driving home after working late shifts, but it does
34 not say whether they were employees at the same store or
35 not. Do you know any more about that?
36 A. No, that much detail, my Lord, I just do not know
37 about. I know that the Manager violated our rules. This
38 was being primarily handled by the Human Resource people in
39 Oregon -- we have a regional office there -- and that swift
40 action was taken against the Manager and appropriate
41 communications took place so that everyone knew what we had
42 done and why we had done it among our employees. But that
43 was long before this legal action, my Lord, and I was not
44 involved in this legal action that you have in front of us.
45
46 MR. MORRIS: If a Manager was sacked for violating McDonald's
47 policy in, for example, Oregon, you would expect to know
48 about that?
49 A. This is a very unusual situation. I would not know
50 about the average or typical, you know, for failing to do
51 their job up to the standards that we would want.
52 I generally would not know about those things. But
53 something as serious as this, yes, I expect to know about
54 it.
55
56 Q. But you do not know that the recent two other cases, not
57 only did you not hear about it but, presumably, the
58 managers were not sacked for it -- the two other cases of
59 people falling asleep at the wheel of a car?
60 A. I am not aware of that much detail in this thing.
