Day 216 - 06 02 96 - Page 16

 
 

                                                                  DAY 216
 
 
 
 
 
     1        not schedule people for more than 39 hours.  But crew
     2        members definitely work more than 39 hours.  There is a guy
     3        upstairs who for the last month has been doing 12 to 12 for
     4        six days a week, and he still gets phoned up on his day off
     5        to come in, but that will be up to him.  He is doing
     6        70 hours and for the extra 21 or 31 hours he is doing on
     7        top he will get that at double pay or time and a half, but
     8        that is for another company.  But at McDonald's he will
     9        still get paid double rate.  It happens everywhere in
    10        McDonald's that people are scheduled for more than 39
    11        hours .... (?)
    12
    13        "A really high volume store could run at 10 per cent
    14        labour.  The fact that they have always got a constant
    15        volume and the fact that the bodies are actually in motion,
    16        they have got a certain amount of people there to keep the
    17        store going, it does make sense that they can run it at a
    18        lesser volume.  At a store like Kentish Town, which is
    19        really quiet, you are still going to need a certain amount
    20        of bodies in the store even though it is really dead for
    21        two to three hours, as soon as you decide you are going to
    22        try to send some people home for a couple of hours.  The
    23        pressure is on to hire under 18 year olds....."
    24
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just pause a moment.  There should really be
    26        a full stop after "two or three hours", and then a comma
    27        after "decide", it seems to me.
    28
    29   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  "As soon as you decide you are going to try
    30        to send some people home for a couple of hours.  The
    31        pressure is on to hire under 18 year olds, as many as
    32        possible.  The company tells you that it wants it done
    33        (keeping labour costs down), and it does not give a
    34        solution on how to do it, so you have got no choice.  It
    35        does not give a choice.  You have got to do it like that or
    36        you are not a good manager.  There is pressure on
    37        everything, not only labour costs, food costs, everything,
    38        using soaps and such, operations supply, we call it,
    39        everything, to make as much profit for the big wigs as
    40        possible.
    41
    42        "At McDonald's there are two different sorts of profit.
    43        There is controllable profit, whereas things like crew
    44        labour, maintenance and repairs as well, if you can keep
    45        all those down to a minimum and get your profit after your
    46        controllables, which for here would be about 28 per cent,
    47        and then there is your net operating income, which is after
    48        things like leasing, insurance for the building, capital
    49        gains and things like that come out.  Then for this store
    50        you are talking about around 8 per cent profit, which is 
    51        not a lot, £6,080.  That is a profit for a month, which is 
    52        not a lot.  Busiest store is Croydon.  They can take £2,000 
    53        to £2,500 an hour.  If they were a breakfast store, they
    54        would open from six in the morning right through to 12 at
    55        night, so they must make an average of about £1,000 an hour
    56        for however many hours that is.
    57
    58        "McDonald's is consistent.  They really do drive into
    59        quality service and consistent food.  You can go to
    60        McDonald's in outer Mongolia and the food will taste the
 
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