witness statement



name: Alan John Beech
section: Employment
for: The Defence
experience: McDonald's part time employee, Heathrow, 1993 -1994

summary:

On several occasions crew members at the Heathrow store, the witness included, suggested that they should investigate starting a union. They did not do this in a particularly serious way but just discussed it while working or on their breaks. On one occasion a manager heard the witness saying that they should join a union and he tumed to the witness and said in a very scornful tone "don't even say that". Shortly afterwards a large notice appeared on the wall of the crew room. It read along the lines of "McDonald's is a non-union company. Anyone found to be conspiring to start or join a union will be subject to immediate dismissal".

cv:


Worked part time at McDonald's drive-through restaurant No. 406 on the Bath Road near Heathrow Airport. Started work in October or early November 1993 and left to go to University in September 1994.

Full cv: (not available for this witness)

full statement:

For almost a year I worked part time at McDonald's drive-through restaurant No. 406 on the Bath Road near Heathrow Airport. I started work in October or early November 1993 and left to go to University in September 1994.

During my time at McDonald's I personally witnessed the following:

Making the Circle Fit the Square

Workers under the age of 18 are to the best of my knowledge not allowed to work after 24.00hrs, but as the restaurant opened until 01.00hrs, and was almost always ridiculously understaffed, people under 18 were regularly worked past 24.00hrs to as late as 02.15hrs, myself included.

In order to hide this fact McDonald's managers would alter the clock-in computer. The employee concerned would be clocked out at 24..00hrs and the time at which they clocked in was moved back, so they were paid for the same number of hours. When I had only just started working for McDonald's, age 17, I was often pressurised and pestered into working late (past 24.00hrs) by managers at the restaurant.

People also used to work very long hours. I once worked a 14 hour day before I was 18 (12.00hrs - 02.00hrs) and I have seen and heard of people working up to 16 hour shifts 12 days in a row.

Breaks were given only when the managers felt the store was quiet enough, and I was once given my only break of 45 minutes only 9 minutes into a 10 hour shift. No choice was given as to whether I wanted a 45 minute unpaid break so soon after arriving. I was told "go on a break or go home!"


The Hustle System

Due to there being so few staff, we were constantly "encouraged" to use the "hustle" system. "Hustle" in McDonald's does not mean move efficiently and quickly, as their handbooks say; it does in fact mean run and scramble about slightly faster than is humanly possible while being shouted at and frequently burning oneself and colleagues. Work as fast as you possibly can and you are still shouted at to work faster, because you are doing the work of 4 or 5 due to understaffing and can't possibly keep up.

On one occasion in the summer of 1994, for over 90 minutes I was running the entire kitchen and one till; normally the kitchen should have about 15 people working in it and workers should not handle money and food at the same time for hygiene reasons. Due to the fact that people were working very long hours without breaks and the restaurant was understaffed workers were regularly burning themselves on hot clam grills and flying fat.


Dangerous Practices

In late August/ early September 1994 one 5 star crew-member was asked to change the Teflon on one of the quarter grills. Normally you would only do that with the grill off and cooled down, but the manager in charge would not allow him to do that. The crew member attempted to change the Teflon with the grill switched on, but burned his hand in the process. His burn covered an area from his index finer and thumb to slightly above the wrist and soon became one large blister. The manager then told one of the floor managers to change the Teflon and he too burned his hands in the process.

I was just finishing my shift at that time, and agreed to drive the burned crew member home as he could not work because of his burn. I asked him if things like that were registered in the accident book. He had never even heard of an accident book. I do not believe that incident was ever entered in the book.

I was allowed to go home early after burning myself on a deep frying basket, and on one occasion sent home after burning myself on the regular grill in April 1994. Both of these injuries were bad enough to stop me completing my shift and both took at least a month to completely heal, yet I am quite sure neither was entered in the accident book.


Starting unions

On several occasions crew members, myself included, suggested that we should investigate starting a union. We didn't do this in a particularly serious way but just discussed it while working or on our breaks. Once a manager heard me saying we should join a union and he tumed to me and said in a very scornful tone "don't even say that". Shortly afterwards a large notice written in red marker pen appeared on the wall of the crew room. It read something along the lines of "McDonald's is a non-union company. Anyone found to be conspiring to start or join a union will be subject to immediate dismissal". This poster stayed on the wall for a week and was then removed.


Rules Broken

McDonald's have 'strict rules' about the handling and storage of food. For instance; pickles which go in the hamburgers are only allowed to be kept out of the refrigerator and on the dressing table for a maximum of 2 hours. Presumably after that time they go off or stale. However this rule is never enforced by managers or anyone else. If the pot of pickles gets down to about a quarter full then it is simply topped up. The pickles at the bottom of the pot therefore remain until the end of the day when the pot is not refilled in an effort to use up the last of the pickles and so reduce waste.

Also, every item of food that is wasted must be logged on the waste sheet, this means that if someone drops a meat patty on the floor whilst hurriedly putting it on the bun, He or She has to then take it to the person on wrap and call and log it down on the waste sheet. At this point the person on wrap will shout at the person responsible because he will get shouted at later for wasting too much food.

The net result of this system is that when someone drops a piece of meat onto the floor, He or She will quickly pick it up and put it back on the bun, or the person on wrap will tell Him or Her to do so, hence avoiding reprimand all round.


date signed: 4th April 1995
status: ?
references: Not applicable/ available
exhibits: Not applicable/ available

related links:

McSpotlight