Day 172 - 12 Oct 95 - Page 46
1 page continuation" ----
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do not bother with that next bit.
4
5 MR. MORRIS: There is a reference number. "At the time I was
6 living at" -- that does not need to be read out -- "Yours,
7 Nicholas Magill (20th July 1993)". Then he says:
8
9 "I, Nicholas Magill of" -- and he gives an address --
10 "will say as follows:-
11
12 1. I was born on 9th December 1963. I worked at the
13 Marble Arch branch of McDonald's from 9th October 1986
14 until approximately March 1987.
15
16 2. I applied for a job at McDonald's after walking past
17 the Marble Arch branch and seeing a sign in the window
18 advertising for staff. I was interviewed by a Manager,
19 whom I was introduced to as Habeeb. I was asked a few
20 questions relating to my past experience and I was then
21 told 'You can speak English, you've got the job'.
22
23 3. Everybody at the store was paid fortnightly. I started
24 on a basic rate of £2.22 per hour, and by the time
25 I finished there I was on £2.37, after one rise of 15p per
26 hour. Unlike a lot of other employees, I spent nearly
27 three months as a 'green badge', although I was aware of
28 the fact that I was only meant to be a 'green badge' for
29 three weeks. However, at Marble Arch this was not
30 uncommon. I kept on asking for a new badge during that
31 time but they just did not give me one. I also asked for a
32 Performance Review on many occasions, which was a
33 pre-requisite of getting a pay-rise. Eventually, after
34 much badgering by me, I was given a Performance Review,
35 which was carried out by the Assistant Manager, Steve
36 Quinn. He went through a list of categories on a check
37 list, awarding marks for particular characteristics. The
38 Check List was in the form shown in the Crew Handbook on
39 page 19. After the review, I got an hourly rise of 15p.
40 Several other staff had a performance review at the same
41 time as me and only got hourly rises of 5p. I do not
42 understand why I got 15p.
43
44 4. I was given Performance Reviews every couple of weeks
45 after this and achieved excellent marks, but I never got
46 any stars. Some people worked at the store for years and
47 still did not have all their stars. The system seemed to
48 be completely arbitrary. As far as I can remember, a
49 written test had to be done in order to get stars but I was
50 never really very interested. The only people who were
51 interested in the stars were people who were looking to go
52 into Management. The star system was absolutely revolting
53 - it was very patronising, very American, full of hype and
54 brainwashing. It seemed to me that they just wanted us to
55 achieve maximum machine-like efficiency.
56
57 5. The highest wage I heard of at the store for regular
58 staff was £3.00 per hour. People earning this money were
59 not Management, but very close to it. There were only a
60 couple of such people and they were both going out with
