Day 205 - 17 Jan 96 - Page 03
1 A. I have an Honours degree in Civil Engineering.
2
3 Q. Currently you are studying for a Masters degree on Water
4 and Waste Management; is that correct?
5 A. Yes. I do that as, if you like, a day release type,
6 from work, sponsored by Anglian Water.
7
8 Q. So Anglian Water subsidise your education, do they?
9 A. Yes, they do.
10
11 Q. I will read out your statement. If there is anything while
12 I am reading that is inaccurate or you want to clarify,
13 please stop me and say so:
14
15 "I was a crew member at the Colchester store McDonald's
16 between July and September 1984, and for a period of
17 10 months about one year later."
18
19 I will just ask you about that. You say you are not
20 exactly sure about the dates?
21 A. No, I am not sure about the dates, no. I could not say
22 the dates were exactly the dates that I was actually
23 working there.
24
25 Q. How do you remember your time at McDonald's?
26 A. I only ------
27
28 Q. Is it a haze or is it clear, or what?
29 A. I remember the events and everything that, you know,
30 I had to go through clearly.
31
32 Q. I will continue reading.
33
34 "Because of the length of time since I worked at
35 McDonald's, I am unable to recall the exact dates. At this
36 time I was a student at the Colchester Institute and could
37 only work weekends and one or two days per week. As an
38 Iranian who has no family in this country, I was very
39 dependent on the money I earned at McDonald's. The
40 management knew this and took advantage of the fact by
41 forcing me to work extra days, work long shifts, and work
42 all night cleaning without any notice if someone from Head
43 Office was visiting the store."
44
45 Can I just ask one question: what do you mean by "long
46 shifts"?
47 A. The long shifts means that, basically, when you are
48 scheduled for a shift and you go to store to do your shift,
49 you do not know whether you are going to come out or not.
50 For example, if you are scheduled for a 4.00 to 12.00
51 shift, it does not mean that necessarily you finish at
52 12 o'clock. You could just basically work there until the
53 morning. If there is a visit, you know, things could get
54 even worse, you know.
55
56 Q. "If I refused to stay" -- I am continuing to read -- "on
57 past the time my shift should end, I was either made to do
58 dirty jobs like scrubbing the toilets or threatened with a
59 cut in hours. Because of my situation, I have had no
60 choice but to comply. I was never paid overtime rate for
