Day 301 - 15 Nov 96 - Page 13
1 to unionise, to be able to fight for better wages and
2 conditions.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: The thing about the disadvantaged groups, young
5 people, women, black people, there is nothing in there that
6 says that they deliberately employ those people. What it
7 says is that those people are the people that end up
8 working for McDonald's because they are in that market. It
9 does not say that they target such people. It says they
10 are only interested in recruiting cheap labour, which is
11 true, and the result of that is that disadvantaged groups
12 fill the positions, the people who have no choice but to
13 take the lowest paying jobs, which is all common sense.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, in that case there is no reason why
16 there should not be a difference between what you say and
17 Ms. Steel says, because at the end of the day this argument
18 is only designed to help me decide what, if any, defamatory
19 meaning there is there.
20
21 MR. MORRIS: Yes, what I am saying -----
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have to take my own route on that, but at
24 the moment there is a difference between what Ms. Steel
25 just said and what you just said.
26
27 MR. MORRIS: She is saying what the issue is, not what the
28 meaning is.
29
30 MS. STEEL: I don't think there is a difference between me and
31 Dave. If you go back up to Caseview, page 11 ----
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Which line?
34
35 MS. STEEL: Line 21. If I say this again, it is probably the
36 easiest thing. I would say they are doing it for the sake
37 of -- that they are exploiting people for low wages and
38 poor conditions in order to make more profits and to that
39 end they seek to employ the people who are going to work
40 for less or the lowest amount that they can get them to
41 work for and that it does not matter who they are, but the
42 reality is that those people are the disadvantaged ones in
43 society generally. And that also, in order to protect
44 their profits, they do not want workers to unionise, to be
45 able to fight for better wages and conditions.
46
47 MR. MORRIS: The thing about the disadvantaged groups -- young
48 people, women, black people -- there is nothing in there
49 that says that they deliberately employed those people.
50 What it says is that those people are the people that end
51 up working for McDonald's because they are in that market.
52 It does not say that they target such people. It says they
53 are only interested in recruiting cheap labour, which is
54 true, and the result of that is that disadvantaged groups
55 fill the positions, the people who have no choice but to
56 take the lowest paying jobs, which is all common sense.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, in that case, there is no reason why
59 there should not be a difference between what you say and
60 Ms. Steel says, because at the end of the day this argument
