Day 154 - 13 Jul 95 - Page 10
1 (To the witness) Have you got your statement -- tab 33?
2
3 THE WITNESS: Which paragraph is it, please?
4
5 MS. STEEL: It is page 215, paragraph 18.
6 A. Yes.
7
8 Q. The paragraph, you would agree, does indicate that it was
9 members of the McDonald's Freedom Fighters who had walked
10 out of a shift after a disagreement with the shift running
11 manager; yes?
12 A. Yes, that is what I said in the statement.
13
14 Q. And that you said the matter had gone too far and that it
15 should stop or there would be trouble, or something similar
16 to that?
17 A. That is right, yes.
18
19 Q. So what was the trouble that you saw as being on its way;
20 what kind of disciplinary action were you -----
21 A. The example, the sort of type of example I recalled a
22 moment ago was, say, for instance, you did a floor plan at
23 the beginning of the shift and put them down to work in the
24 kitchen, perhaps they would say: "I want to work on the
25 till today", so you would have to enter into a sort of a
26 lengthy discussion with them as to where you would like
27 them to work that day. Obviously, if the whole shift was
28 coming in and wanted to work on different areas, then it
29 would cause a problem. If three or four of them were
30 working on the same shift, then you could not always
31 accommodate their wishes. It was sort of fairly feeble
32 little things like that.
33
34 Q. You did not actually answer the question. What kind of
35 action was management going to take if the trouble did not
36 stop?
37 A. I cannot remember specifically, but I mean -----
38
39 Q. It would have been some kind of disciplinary action?
40 A. Because they were fairly immature or felt that -- or,
41 you know, did not realise they were being disruptive, they
42 were just treating it as a bit of joke. So if I did speak
43 to them, then it would have been just a sort of friendly
44 warning that we have a business to run, and if they are
45 going to behave in a childish manner, then it is not
46 conducive to operating a business.
47
48 Q. If they carry on walking out on shifts, then somebody may
49 come down on them and say: "This has to stop"?
50 A. If they continued walking out on shifts, then we would
51 obviously -----
52
53 Q. Sorry -- "We are going to take some kind of disciplinary
54 action against you"?
55 A. If they continued to walk off shifts, then we obviously
56 would have had no choice but to take disciplinary action
57 against them.
58
59 Q. That would have been what you said to them?
60 A. It may have been. That was recalling, you know, in
