Day 301 - 15 Nov 96 - Page 29

     
     1        worked also refers to day 121, page 8, line 32, I think
     2        that is about cutting the hours.
     3
     4        In any event, the crew are not paid for their meal breaks.
     5        I have not got a reference for that, but we all know that.
     6        Sorry, I have got a thing about extending the hours being
     7        worked.  That was day 121, page 19, line 20.  So here we
     8        have....  Well, not being paid for the meal breaks,
     9        I think, is particularly an example of bad conditions.  It
    10        also has the, whether deliberate or -- well, it must be
    11        deliberate -- well, it obviously has the deliberate effect
    12        of reducing the amount of money that workers get, but also
    13        it has, whether deliberate or not, the effect of
    14        discouraging people to take meal breaks or longer meal
    15        breaks or whatever, the meal breaks they are entitled to,
    16        in fact they are legally obliged to have, for their own
    17        protection on the grounds that the law is quite well aware
    18        of how employers can be unscrupulous and ruthless in
    19        exploiting workers, especially if they do   not have any
    20        trade union protection or legal protection and ----
    21
    22   MS. STEEL:   I think the point as well is, and they need the
    23        breaks for their own safety so they are not tired, so that
    24        they are more careful about how they are working.
    25
    26   MR. MORRIS:   Obviously, meal breaks are a thing that everyone
    27        would recognise that people need, but at one stage, when it
    28        was shown how workers were not getting their entitlement
    29        for meal breaks, and I am sure -- we will see how the
    30        Plaintiffs get out of that when they give their submissions
    31         -- that the argument being that workers do not actually
    32        always want them.  And the point is, if you are not being
    33        paid for them, then that is an incentive to management and
    34        workers to cut the breaks.
    35
    36        Poor conditions.  People should be paid for their meal
    37        breaks and they should get them at the right time when they
    38        most need them, which is during intense periods of hard
    39        work and concentration, none of which, of course, happens
    40        at McDonald's.
    41
    42        Then we go on the subject of overtime.  Mr. Nicholson
    43        admitted that McDonald's have never paid overtime.  That
    44        was on day 118, page 9, line 47.  He said there was a
    45        policy setting a maximum of 39 hours a week for all staff.
    46        I think that was page 47, line 30 on that day.
    47
    48        Of course, we saw the memo which said that it was a policy
    49        applying to all staff, but because we had obtained
    50        documents under discovery and some other documents
    51        ourselves, it was found that at least 5 percent of hourly
    52        paid staff were working over 39 hours per week.  This was
    53        all discussed on day 118, page 28, and day 119, page 41,
    54        I think.  5 percent of all hourly paid staff working over
    55        39 hours is, of course, 25 percent of full-timers, as
    56        Mr. Rampton basically put to Mr. Pearson, that of course
    57        the obvious, that virtually all of the people working the
    58        39 hours per week will be full-timers.
    59
    60        Mr. Nicholson's comment on this massive breach of their