Day 179 - 30 Oct 95 - Page 06

     
     1        potentially dangerous equipment by themselves for the sake
     2        of maintaining a low labour rate.
     3
     4        "To do the schedule, you had to allot shifts to the staff,
     5        taking into account their availability.  On a staff
     6        member's application form there was a box in which the
     7        applicant would write the hours they were available between
     8        on each day of the week.  The favoured staff were the more
     9        flexible ones, so they would get a better share of hours
    10        than someone who was only willing to work from 9 to 5
    11        Monday to Friday, say.  If someone was not considered
    12        flexible enough, they were often penalised.  An example of
    13        this is as follows.
    14
    15        "Sally Kane was a part-time worker studying at the Sixth
    16        Form College in Colchester.  On her application form she
    17        stated that she could not work on Sundays.  This was not
    18        convenient to the store, so to rectify the problem she was
    19        scheduled 2 hours per week, the object being to make her
    20        short of money.  After three weeks of this, she agreed to
         work on Sundays.  This is the kind of strategy I was
    22        trained to use by the salaried managers.
    23
    24        "The amount of hours given to individual staff members
    25        varied enormously.  For example, during the school holidays
    26        when the store was busy a full-time worker could do 60 to
    27        70 hours per week, particularly if the store was
    28        understaffed.  When the school holidays ended and the store
    29        became quiet, the same worker could do as little as
    30        25 hours per week.  Nobody's hours were guaranteed.
    31        The amount of hours scheduled depended entirely on the
    32        labour rate percentage of the store's takings.  If the
    33        store was understaffed, the labour rate could drop by more
    34        than a third.  This would be considered excellent by the
    35        Area Supervisor.  He would be considered more highly by his
    36        superiors the lower the labour rate was for the day or week
    37        or month."
    38
    39        Is that all true and an accurate reflection of your
    40        experience?
         A.  Yes.
    42
    43   Q.   Section 4: "When I was under 18, I regularly worked past
    44        midnight.  You were told to clock out at midnight, and
    45        written by the side of that day on your clock card would be
    46        something like 'plus X hours bonus' or just 'plus X
    47        hours'.
    48
    49        "You were asked to stay on.  If you said no, however, you
    50        were threatened with a cut of hours the next week or given 
    51        nasty jobs like cleaning the toilets, scrubbing the floors, 
    52        etc..  On no occasion was a taxi paid for me, even if I had 
    53        worked till 6 a.m..  If you had no money, you had to walk
    54        home after a shift of perhaps 18 hours.
    55
    56        "Under 18 year old males working past midnight was the
    57        norm.  In my entire three years at McDonald's, in all the
    58        stores I worked, I doubt there was an under 18 year old
    59        male full-timer who never worked past midnight."
    60