Day 301 - 15 Nov 96 - Page 27
1 analysing other industries' pay. This was on day 118,
2 page 79 onwards. So he was clearly quite inexperienced in
3 terms of other industries, and also, as it happens later on
4 -- well, yes.
5
6 He admitted that McDonald's higher management got over
7 £70,000 per annum plus perks and bonuses, and said "I do
8 not feel I am getting enough pay". He then said something
9 like, "everybody feels they do not get enough pay". But,
10 as we said at the time, the people who are most justified
11 in feeling they are getting low pay are the people who are
12 actually getting at or near the bottom of the pay scale,
13 and if he does not feel he is getting enough pay, then
14 certainly people on £3 an hour are entitled to feel that a
15 thousand times over. That was on day 119, page 14, line
16 35.
17
18 He agreed that for years.... I am sorry if I have got a
19 little bit of a kind of tone creeping into my.... It has
20 been a very long trial and ----
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have told you I am not concerned by your
23 tone of voice.
24
25 MR. MORRIS: I cannot help feeling sort of angry and -----
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You do yourself the best service if you just
28 produce it all calmly so that I can get it down.
29
30 MR. MORRIS: I am trying to, yes. Right. He agreed that for
31 years, for most of the country the starting rates of pay
32 have been, I think it is a direct quote, been consistently
33 either exactly the same as the minimum rates of pay set by
34 the Wages Council or just a few pence over them. That is
35 day 118, page 7, line 5.
36
37 He also agreed that the company "could not actually pay any
38 lower wages without falling foul of the law". The same
39 page, line 16. We would submit that really wraps up the
40 whole case on pay. Effectively, obviously, we are going to
41 go into more detail to cover ourselves, but that should be
42 enough to establish the truth of what is said in the
43 leaflet.
44
45 He was asked about, when the Wages Council abolished the
46 legal protection of a minimum wage for under twenty ones,
47 how he felt about that, and he said, "I was quite content
48 because it simplified things". Well, I was quite content,
49 dot dot dot, because it simplified things, unquote. That
50 was day 120, page 52, line 9.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It was under twenty ones, rather than
53 eighteens, was it?
54
55 MR. MORRIS: Yes, it was under twenty ones. I think that was
56 in 1987, I am not sure. Mr. Pearson dealt with that. 1986
57 or 1987.
58
59 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, what happened was.... Are we on minimum
60 wage and overtime?
