Day 148 - 05 Jul 95 - Page 21
1 opinion as well, being someone who was in Operations for a
2 great deal of time.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What troubles me, you see, is, if we follow a
5 strict form, what it would involve is someone who, I would
6 have thought, might or might not be Mrs. Brinley-Codd, and
7 if you said: "No, we want someone close to the action",
8 that would be Mr. Stein swearing an affidavit about whether
9 there was a document. It is entirely up to McDonald's who
10 they chose to swear the affidavit unless I indicated to the
11 contrary.
12
13 Mr. Stein is the obvious person. We actually had his
14 evidence in the witness box on the topic. So there is no
15 point in him swearing an affidavit about it, which is why
16 I am asking for the references to Mr. Stein so I can check
17 through them again.
18
19 MR. MORRIS: I could check that if we have some time, but the
20 principle remains the same, and that the Plaintiffs could
21 be ordered to disclose the relevant information that they
22 are able to get by some kind of non-arduous method. You
23 may feel that if they have to leaf through individual
24 personnel files, then -----
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is why I am asking because I will be
27 quite candid. At the moment, if someone has to go into a
28 store and look at all the files and make some kind of
29 synopsis of what proportion of employees have been there
30 and how long, I really think that is too arduous for what
31 may be produced at the end. Since it is only a sample of
32 stores, there is no way of knowing whether the sample is
33 truly indicative of the situation in the United States.
34
35 The other thing I have in mind is that it may be one thing
36 as in this country where you have got the great majority of
37 stores run by McDonald's itself with pretty uniform
38 procedures, and attempting to get a uniform performance
39 which is the one of the things you actually criticise them
40 for. But, in the United States, where the great majority
41 of stores are run by individual businessmen, franchisees
42 who, being but human beings, have probably got very
43 different attitudes to what they expect from their
44 employees. I find it much more -- I can see why it might
45 be much more difficult to get any useful analysis of the
46 situation in the States.
47
48 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, Mrs. Brinley-Codd has found something
49 which she thinks may be what Mr. Morris was thinking of
50 which is something completely different. This is Ms. Steel
51 -- this is on page 65 on the same day at line 47: "In
52 this country, Mr. Stein, we have heard that the Company
53 keeps a record of the reasons why people left moment",
54 whatever that means, "at McDonald's by way of a termination
55 code which is kept, which is put into a computer and kept
56 on record. Is there a similar situation in the USA?" "No.
57 It is done at the store level, kept in the store level,
58 in store files. We do not have the capacity to put it into
59 a computer or get anything off that." "Even for McOpco
60 stores?" "Even for McOpco stores. I can have access to
