Day 162 - 25 Jul 95 - Page 13
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Put it another way. I think what Mr. Morris
2 is getting at is this: you said that if they just went
3 away for two to three months, they would remain on the
4 payroll?
5 A. That is correct.
6
7 Q. University terms, for instance, vary between something like
8 eight weeks and, I suppose, 10. Maybe, if you go up a week
9 early and come down a week late, it might be 12. But all
10 those periods of time are within the two to three month
11 compass you gave. So someone could, if they wanted to work
12 all their holidays, leave McDonald's at the end of a
13 university vacation, come back at the beginning of the next
14 vacation, and they would have been away less than three
15 months; so, your according to your evidence, they could
16 have stayed on the payroll?
17 A. Yes, sir.
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What do you say about that?
20
21 MR. MORRIS: Yes. But would that be the situation, that if they
22 told in advance tht they are definitely going to be there,
23 you know, at the end of their next term, and you had kept
24 them on the payroll, would they then keep their conditions
25 of service in that situation, or would they have to start
26 -- what would the situation be?
27 A. It is possible, but I have not come across that. Quite
28 often, they come for a long term holiday time. If it is
29 two or three weeks holiday, they do not come back. If it
30 is a month's holiday, they do come back to London and they
31 come back to their job. It is not my experience they come
32 every term. But if they did come back in three months,
33 I would have kept their job for them and all conditions.
34
35 Q. You would keep all the conditions and they would have kept
36 their original payroll -----
37 A. That is right; if they come within that three months,
38 yes.
39
40 Q. Is that the practice in the other stores you have worked
41 in ---
42 A. I am not sure.
43
44 Q. -- as far as you know?
45 A. I am not sure. I have not asked that, because it is up
46 to the restaurant Manager and up to the individual crew
47 whether they have got that kind of students or not. I do
48 not have no knowledge of it.
49
50 Q. Presumably, for a student, that would be a motivation to
51 come back to McDonald's, that they have got all their
52 conditions that they had previously achieved before?
53 A. Sure.
54
55 Q. So that would not surprise you if it was happening quite
56 widespread in the Company?
57 A. It would not surprise me.
58
59 MR. MORRIS: There may be one further question.
60
