Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 07

     
     1        view, is highly relevant as background to my own union
     2        recruitment experience in this sector.
     3
     4        "9.  Low pay persists in catering.  The Council of Europe's
     5        definition of 'low pay' is the 'decency threshold', set at
     6        less than 68 per cent of average earnings in any affiliated
     7        country.  On this basis, according to the 1992 New Earnings
     8        Survey, low pay is defined at £207.13 a week or £5.52 an
     9        hour."
    10
    11        Sorry, that was for 1992, was it not?
    12        A.  1992.
    13
    14   Q.   Yes.  "The New Earnings Survey does not provide specific
    15        data on pay for fast food workers.  But average earnings
    16        for all workers covered by wages councils, including those
    17        in fast food, were £174.50, with 72.2 per cent earning less
    18        than £200 per week and as many as one in 10 workers earning
    19        below £105.60 a week.  The same survey shows that waiting
    20        staff earn on average £151.60 a week, with nearly
         85 per cent on less than £200 a week.
    22
    23        "Such factors as these set the background for the interest
    24        in union membership reported by Gabriel and others....."
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are percentage figures  -- yes, carry on.
    27        I interrupted before you got to the end of the sentence.
    28
    29   MR. MORRIS:  ".....in line with my own experience in the field."
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let me just ask:  the figures in paragraph 9,
    32        are they gross figures before deductions?
    33        A.  They are.
    34
    35   MR. MORRIS:  You made that statement on 23rd July, 1993, and you
    36        stick by it?
    37        A.  Yes to both questions.
    38
    39   Q.   You have kind of incorporated this in your second
    40        statement, so some of it may be a bit repetitive, but
         I will read it out and then I will ask you some specific
    42        questions.  This is the statement of 1st March, 1995:
    43
    44        "1.  I worked for the Transport and General Workers Union
    45        as a full-time official from April 1980 to November 1992",
    46        you have put.  Was that, in fact, 1991?
    47        A.  It should say 1991.
    48
    49   Q.   Yes.  " ... working out of the union's central London
    50        office at North Gower Street.  Immediately prior to taking 
    51        up this appointment I was employed as a fieldworker with 
    52        the Migrants Services Unit, a voluntary organisation, 
    53        working primarily on employment-related issues amongst
    54        migrant workers in London."
    55
    56        So that was previous to the Transport and General Workers
    57        Union?
    58        A.  Exactly.
    59
    60   Q.   "2.  My union duties principally focused on the hotel and