Day 150 - 07 Jul 95 - Page 19
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: They are allowed to do that, were they?
2 There is no reason why they should not look in their file
3 if it was given to them?
4 A. No. We ask them, in fact, to bring it down, to be
5 honest.
6
7 Q. Sorry?
8 A. We ask them to bring it down themselves. So there was
9 no, sort of, sending it -- we would send it internally; we
10 ask them to bring it down.
11
12 MR. ATKINSON: How long has that arrangement been in operation,
13 by that I mean that people on return are paid their
14 previous rate? One thing there, if the rate has gone up in
15 the meantime, what happens then? Do they start on the old
16 rate?
17 A. Well, assuming that the new rate is higher than the
18 rate at which they were paid when they were going out, then
19 they would get the uplifting in pay. So we would not, in
20 effect, take the opportunity to pay them less than the
21 starting rate. Quite frankly, they would not want to come
22 and work for me if that was the case anyway. But if the
23 pay rate has gone up from the Company side of it, then that
24 would be reflected in their starting rate.
25
26 Q. So if they had been given, say, a 20p an hour increase
27 above the starting rate when they were at their original
28 store, they come back to the store, in the meantime the
29 basic starting rate has gone up ---
30 A. Right.
31
32 Q. -- then what is the position then? What do they get then?
33 A. Then we can maintain that 20p ceiling, variance, if you
34 like, when they start again.
35
36 Q. I was going to ask you that question and I got
37 sidetracked. How long, to your knowledge, has this
38 particular system been in operation?
39 A. Since I joined McDonald's. I was doing the practice
40 myself as a Restaurant Manager and I have not known it to
41 stop since then.
42
43 Q. One question which might occur to people: Why on earth do
44 you do this because would it not be cheaper to treat them
45 as though they had started afresh and ignore any previous
46 amount of money they were receiving?
47 A. Well, it would have been cheaper, but the idea is I do
48 not think any self-effacing individual is going to come
49 back for less than the outgoing rate. At the end of the
50 day, as a Restaurant Manager, in fact, in all positions
51 I have to work with these people and I need to be able to
52 look them in the eye and not feel that I have "one up on
53 them", so to speak. So, having known the individuals very
54 well as a Restaurant Manager -- to be honest, if they do me
55 the honour of coming back to work because they think it is
56 a good place to work, and I know in Leicester at the time
57 there were plenty of opportunities to find out of term time
58 work, then I take that personal pride quite deeply and
59 would be quite willing to re-employ them back on the rate.
60
