Day 163 - 25 Sep 95 - Page 30

     
     1   MR. MORRIS:   Sorry, this is on page 28.  This is just like the
     2        introduction.  If you look in the middle of the first page,
     3        it says John Shavez, a Department spokesman, if we look
     4        over the page on page 29 it reports:  "Shavez said:  'The
     5        new alleged violator in Rhode Island was McDonald's of
     6        North Kingstown for employing 14 and 15 year old workers
     7        during improper hours'."  Then it says at the bottom:
     8        "'Each alleged violator has the right to challenge the
     9        citation in court or pay an assessed fine.  The department
    10        has assessed a total of $283,000 in fines for New England
    11        firms following the sweeps', Shavez said."
    12
    13        So far as I can see, the firms are basically fined and then
    14        given an option on challenging the citation in court or
    15        paying that fine.  So I do not know if the fine was ever
    16        paid or whether that was challenged in court.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Where does this printout come from?
    19
    20   MR. MORRIS:  Because I do not understand all the intricacies of
         computer -----
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, but who is keeping this bank of
    24        information so that they can print it out?
    25
    26   MR. MORRIS:  I think it is an available service in America that
    27        someone can pay into.  It is copyrighted press reports,
    28        just as if it was a library of press cuttings but it is on
    29        computer.  Someone by paying a fee can have a printout of
    30        any amount of information they require of the reports in
    31        the paper.  I mean, basically, they are the newspaper
    32        reports.
    33
    34        Before closing on this (and maybe I would like to give
    35        Mr. Rampton an opportunity to come back now before we deal
    36        with the other matters), if I could just check for that
    37        part of particular No. 4 in the employment conditions
    38        regarding the 1,000 labour investigators?  If I can have a
    39        few minutes to do that, it should be here?
    40
    MR. RAMPTON:  Before Mr. Morris does that, my Lord, I would
    42        invite your Lordship not only to ask him where this
    43        information comes from, but when he received it.  The
    44        document relating to food violation, as we know, has a fax
    45        date on it of March 1995.  We know that Mr. Morris had this
    46        document by the time Mr. Stein gave evidence because he
    47        cross-examined him on the basis of it.
    48
    49        What I would like to know (and I believe he has an
    50        obligation to tell your Lordship) honestly is when he 
    51        received this wad of printouts about alleged violations of 
    52        the child employment laws. 
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  I think I said when I was questioning
    55        Mr. Stein that I had just received it at that time.
    56        Naturally, I had just received it at that time.  My
    57        recollection of the situation was that the Plaintiffs said
    58        or indicated, or the court indicated, that it was not
    59        interested in the matters until they were pleaded.  I think
    60        I put the matters to Mr. Stein.  Obviously, if the