Day 142 - 26 Jun 95 - Page 05
1 grievances to do with pay and conditions?
2 A. I was just generally informed that this one individual
3 had some concerns; that it was not something that applied
4 to the crew in general, and that the crew was not
5 interested in this individual or what he was doing.
6
7 Q. Are you aware that McDonald's in Beijing had hired almost
8 three times as many employees as they needed for that store
9 and as a result people were getting very, very few hours
10 scheduled?
11 A. I am hearing several questions in one.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would like you to put it again and do not
14 say, "Are you aware that?" because that sounds as if it is
15 so. If you are asking Mr. Stein about the facts, say, "Is
16 it right that?"
17
18 MR. MORRIS: Is it right that the Company hired three times as
19 many employees as they needed for that store first?
20 A. I do not want to get into English and American/English,
21 the number -- so, I beg, my Lord, if I can try to
22 articulate and if there is any confusion we can deal with
23 it -- the number of employees that were hired for that
24 store was the right number of employees that should have
25 been hired at the time the hiring was done.
26
27 MR. MORRIS: For that store?
28 A. For that store and also -- no, let me add on to it --
29 and for additional stores that were anticipated to be
30 coming on stream, if you will, shortly thereafter.
31
32 Q. But they did not come on stream, did they?
33 A. There was a delay in them coming on board, but that
34 became known after the fact.
35
36 Q. So the reality is that the people that were hired, that you
37 say were hired, for that store in the correct numbers had
38 greatly reduced hours as a consequence; that would be
39 logical, would it not?
40 A. No, it is not logical. You are using words that
41 I cannot agree with. I know that there was an interest not
42 for anyone to lose their job over it and there were
43 guaranteed hours given to the crew, so we would not go
44 below the guarantees. I know that from general information
45 that we incurred extra expense over and above what we
46 needed so we could live up to our agreement.
47
48 Q. What was the guaranteed hours?
49 A. I do not have that much detail. I do not know. I just
50 know in general how it was handled, as I have just
51 articulated, but I cannot give you a specific number.
52
53 Q. But if three times as many employees as were needed for a
54 particular store all had guaranteed hours, then we can
55 assume that it was something like a third of what the
56 normal average hours worked would be, something like that?
57 A. I think you are making a lot of assumptions upon
58 assumptions upon assumptions, and I do not agree with what
59 you are saying.
60
