Day 301 - 15 Nov 96 - Page 24
1 say, you know, do people have a right to criticise, it is
2 not a question of whether you have a right to seriously
3 criticise.
4
5 And he then says, for example, "Do McDonald's cynically
6 exploit the weak position of women and ethnic minorities in
7 the labour market?" Actually, that is a bit of admission
8 that that is the issue, because he sums it up very well,
9 actually, apart from the 'cynically'. "Do McDonald's
10 exploit the weak position of women and ethnic minorities in
11 the labour market for McDonald's to supply themselves with
12 cheap labour?" Well, as the leaflet says, it is not that
13 they go out to get as many women and black people as
14 possible, it is just a result of the weak position of those
15 people in the labour market that they inevitably go for the
16 lower paid jobs. Of course, McDonald's is one of the lower
17 paid jobs. So that is all I have to say about that.
18
19 Going through our what we might call 'core evidence' on
20 this subject, let us see what order we can do this in.
21 (Pause) I think we have heard that they employ about 40,000
22 employees now in the UK -- about 30,000, five or six years
23 ago. Over one and a half million worldwide.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Does the one and a half million include all
26 franchisees, subsidiaries, and everything else?
27
28 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The 40,000 in the UK and 30,000 were just the
31 second Plaintiffs' own stores were they not?
32
33 MR. MORRIS: I don't think so, because certainly at the
34 beginning of the case, when McDonald's was discussed, it
35 was always as, if you like, the whole system. It only
36 became an issue to start separating out franchisees after a
37 certain part in the case. So, I think, unless I am wrong,
38 and I have not got the figures in front of me and
39 I probably will not have them in the submission, that I got
40 the impression we are were talking about all the workers at
41 any McDonald's store. But Mr. Rampton no doubt will have
42 -----
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I had a recollection of a figure of 31,000,
45 whenever that was, in 1990, and that was the second
46 Plaintiffs' own stores, because at that time there were not
47 a great number of franchisee anyway.
48
49 MR. MORRIS: Only a handful.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: As you say, you have not got the answer now,
52 so do not go on. Mr. Rampton may give you the figures
53 anyway. The reason I ask is this: I have got the figures
54 of numbers of restaurants in this country and worldwide, it
55 may be important to have figures for employees to see
56 whether incidents which have been proved are a guide to
57 what is going on generally, because that may be a matter
58 which I have got to... Well, it will be a matter I have
59 got to give some thought to.
60
