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1. I am 21 years of age.
2. I Joined the Bath restaurant of McDonald's in September 1991 as a part-time crew member. I was at school at the time starting my 'A' level course. I used to work either Friday evening or Sunday, and Saturday during the term time, usually totalling about 15 hours a week. During the holidays I worked full-time, about 40 hours a week. I took my 'A' levels in June 1993 but as I did not get the grades I wanted, I re-sat them the following summer. During this period, September 1993 - June 1994, I worked between 20 and 30 hours a week.
3. On completing my 'A' levels I became a full-time crew member with the company.
4. In January 1994 I became a member of the training squad and in July 1995 I was promoted to my current position of floor manager.
5. I have read the statements of Michael Logan ("Mike") and the specific allegation that in 1994/95 I worked some very long shifts. I have the following comments.
6. Scheduling
During the period November to January in both 1993/94 and 1994/95 I did work longer shifts than normal. This was because I asked for them as I wanted to earn extra money for Christmas and the January sales. For example, when I was scheduled to do a close (4 p.m. to close) I would ask to come in at noon, adding on 4 hours. In 1993-94, during term-time this increased my hours from 15 to about 20 hours a week. During the vacation, my hours increased to about 45 hours a week.
7. I did not consider these hours to be excessive and I was pleased to have the opportunity to earn some extra cash. There was no question of my being mistreated by management. On the contrary, I asked for these extra hours and the arrangement was agreed by the store managers at the time, David Wynne (1993/94) and Phil Cummings (1994/95).
8. Currently, in my position as floor manager, I am scheduled to work about 40 hours a week; as I like to come in slightly early, I probably work nearer 45 hours a week.
9. I have never experienced managers using the schedule as a "tool of discipline" as Mike alleges. They have always been happy to meet my scheduling requests whenever possible.
10. Bath is a busy restaurant and we can experience understaffing when there are 'no shows', lateness, sickness etc. Also, because it is a 'student city' it has a fairly high turnover, i.e. students in Bath departing at the end of term and students outside Bath returning during the vacation, and vice versa. Thin can lead to a week or so when we are 'struggling' around the turnover period but, conversely, it can lead to overstaffing. I would estimate that at least 90% of the time the restaurant is adequately staffed. I completely disagree with Mike's comment that one in three shifts are inadequately staffed. That would be equivalent to understaffing once every two or three days.
11. I have not seen or heard of other crew experiencing a cut in their hours or constant pressure leading to their resignations. Certainly I have always been given the hours I have wanted (whether more or less, and at the times of day I wanted).
12. As I have no experience of preparing the schedule, I cannot comment on the process itself, other than to say that I believe it to be one of the hardest jobs for the managers to get right. As far as I can see they try their best.
13. Overtime
I have explained my hours above, which are now about 40-45 hours a week. I have never been pressured into working over 39 hours; I have done so because I wanted to. Managers never ask or expect you to work hours you do not want to.
14. Clockcards
I have no knowledge of my clockcards being altered, resulting in my being paid for less hours than I have worked. I used to check my pay slips as a crew member and I never noticed any discrepancy.
15. As a floor manager I am now authorised to make adjustments to crew clockcards but only if they fail to clock in or out at the beginning or end of their shifts or breaks. Usually a note is left by the shift running manager of the time the crew member arrived/left or took their break. If there is no note we clock them in/out at their scheduled time.
16. Breaks
I have not experienced any particular problem with breaks and certainly I have not felt 'abused'. Frankly, as a floor manager responsible for certain areas on a shift I have found no difficulty in getting people on to their break at a reasonable time. Obviously, if, say, four people start at 11 a.m. someone has to go on their break last, but not later than 3.30 - 4 p.m.
17. When I worked as a crew member on Saturdays I do remember being asked to go on my break shortly after starting but I would usually get a 15-20 minute break later at about 4 - 5 p.m. when the next shift started. This would happen quite often but I never saw it as a problem.
18. Performance Reviews ("PR's")
I have had no problems with my PR's. I do not remember them being more than about two weeks late and if they were the pay rise was always backdated. My reviews have lasted about 15-30 minutes depending on how much I have wanted to say. Overall I consider my PR's have been a fair reflection of my performance. Some I think have been too fair and some a little harsh but they always seem to balance out. There is space for a crew member to make their comments on the PR form if they wish. I believe my pay to be competitive and I have been content with it.
19. Grills
I have no recollection of the grills regularly tripping out or a problem with the RCD system. It may have been that I was working weekends at the time and so would not have been aware of the problem.
20. I have experienced grills tripping out once or twice although I have no recollection of the dates. Certainly it wee not a regular occurrence.
21. I have never seen uncooked burgers being sent out to customers. There is no point in managers asking us to do this as the potential problems far outweigh the gains.
22. As a crew member I usually worked the grills and I would not know about customer complaints. Since I have become a floor manager I have not yet received a customer complaint of uncooked product.
23. I do recall the grease trap leaking as the back corner seam needed welding. Jagon Flint, our maintenance man, can fix this at virtually no cost as he has the equipment and capability. I do not see how it could be a safety hazard in normal use.
24. Chicken Vats
I did not work the chicken vats and so I have no knowledge or experience of this allegation.
25. Maintenance and Repair
I do not recall the toasters breaking down regularly and I certainly have never seen them patched up with blue plasters.
26. I cannot comment on Jagon's electrical qualifications.
27. Hustle
About 2-3 years ago a new OCL called 'Impressive Customer Service' was introduced with questions on the front and back page. On the back page crew were asked to state what they understood hustle to mean. When these OCL's were introduced we were trained that hustle meant co-ordinating your actions to achieve the most efficient use of time and human energy, or something like that. Crew need to achieve 90% on both sides of the form to pass the OCL. However, even if a crew member does pass the test but gets the definition of hustle wrong they are still re-trained about the correct meaning.
28. Before this OCL was introduced I had understood hustle to mean 'go as fast as you can, as safely as you can'.
29. Generally
Mike states that McDonald's treats you like a cost and not a resource, giving little regard to a crew members' rights or well being.
30. If this had been my experience I would not have moved from part to full-time or from crew member to floor manager.
31. I have found the communication within the restaurant to be good. There are regular rap sessions sad crew meetings, some of which I have attended. I have always felt that managers are approachable and that they listen to any problems or requests that arise. For example, in about June this year I was somewhat disenchanted with the job as I had been encouraged to think that I would get promoted but nothing seemed to happen. I talked to a few floor managers at that time and they suggested that I went to see Phil, the store manager. The next time I saw Phil in the crew room I asked him if we could have a chat and he took me into the managers' office next door right away. I asked him what the chances of promotion were and what I needed to prove in order to get promoted. Phil said that he would give me some more responsibility to show that I could run the floor, which he did. In July this year I was promoted to floor manager.
| date signed: | November, 18 1995 |
| status: |
Appeared in court
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exhibits: Not applicable/ available
transcripts of court appearances:
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