Day 301 - 15 Nov 96 - Page 17

     
     1        a statement which even you have not suggested is defamatory
     2        is true or not.
     3
     4   MR. MORRIS:   I will just start going through.
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   By the way, CaseView said "those who read
     7        the leaflet".  I thought I said "those who read the
     8        judgment".
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:   No, my Lord, you did not, you said 'leaflet'.
    11        I hope nobody is ever going to read the leaflet again.
    12
    13   MS. STEEL:   It is a historic document now.
    14
    15   MR. MORRIS:   Right.  "What is it like working for McDonald's?
    16        There must be a serious problem, even though eighty percent
    17        of McDonald's workers are part time."  True.  "The annual
    18        staff turnover is 60 percent", greatly underestimated
    19        there.  In the USA it is 300 percent.  We have heard it was
    20        240 percent at one stage in the mid to late '80s.  So that
         is not that far out.  "It is not unusual for their
    22        restaurant workers to quit after just four or five weeks."
    23        That is obviously true.  "The reasons are not hard to find.
    24        And what are the reasons?"
    25
    26        But what is the nub of this section is the next line.
    27        After the heading 'no unions allowed'.  "Workers in
    28        catering do badly in terms of pay and conditions."  That is
    29        basically what it is all about.  That includes everything.
    30        And the meaning of that is they do badly i.e., badly
    31        comparatively, in comparison to other workers or in
    32        comparison to, you know, what potentially they could do if
    33        they were not being exploited by multi-national companies.
    34        You know, if capitalism did not exist.  So the 'badly' is
    35        clearly a comparison, and we can say it is defamatory and
    36        we can say it is -----
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You mean you do say it is defamatory?
    39
    40   MR. MORRIS:   Yes, it is defamatory.  Why not say it is
         defamatory then?   It is defamatory of the catering
    42        industry even though it is so common knowledge that I
    43        cannot see how it can damage the catering industry's
    44        reputation, because everybody in the world knows the
    45        catering industry does badly in terms of pay and
    46        conditions, comparatively to other industries such as local
    47        government or banking, or whatever.  Or, indeed, doctors,
    48        lawyers, whatever else.
    49
    50        You know, it is hard to say whether it is fact or comment
    51        or both, this sting.  I mean, it is obviously fact in that
    52        you can identify the pay and conditions that are worse than
    53        other industries, but it contains a comment in it which is
    54        that it is not a good thing, you know, and the people have
    55        a right to hold opinions about the -- really it is a
    56        general charge, if anything, which includes an element of
    57        comment.  General charge.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is a general charge, and you say it is
    60        both fact and comment, do you?