Day 304 - 22 Nov 96 - Page 07
1 I think you should note that that actually came up with the
2 dispute with Mike Soriano, and it is quite amazing really
3 that disputes in two places so far away both in distance
4 and in time, you know, McDonald's put forward the same
5 argument, the same line on both occasions. Then,
6 obviously, there was a repeat pattern with all the social
7 events and improvement in conditions and so on at the
8 stores where unionisation was being attempted; effectively,
9 trying to buy off the employees and persuade them that
10 things were not as bad as they thought and they did not
11 need a union.
12
13 The other general point, I think actually Mr. Morris said
14 this, is that it is worth bearing in mind that Colchester
15 was the Store of the Year, so the practices there were
16 obviously considered to be the best practices as far as the
17 Company was concerned.
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is that the way round it is? Because, even
20 on your own evidence, it seems one pretty soon reaches a
21 level of management where there is no suggestion that
22 anyone above that knew what was going on. I thought your
23 case was, rather, that the insistence on cutting costs
24 would lead ordinary people to do what they did.
25
26 MS. STEEL: I think there is a bit of both, to be honest. Yes,
27 I think there has to be. All right, the higher levels of
28 management may not know every single thing that is going
29 on, but they must be aware that there has to be cutting of
30 corners, and so on, in order to achieve these results.
31 They could quite easily look into it and do something about
32 it.
33
34 In terms of pay, some final points about pay. Just that it
35 should be borne in mind that if the Plaintiffs are going to
36 stick to their argument that, for example, Mr. Alimi was
37 being paid enough money and was not being illegally
38 underpaid because he was not getting any added overtime
39 rate on top of his basic hours, if they are going to argue
40 that it was not illegal because he was already getting
41 higher rates because of the premium and because of his
42 performance rating, then that negates their argument about
43 how the minimum, the starting level of pay rises rapidly.
44
45 Obviously, we say it does not rise rapidly in any event,
46 but it is quite clear that, if they are going to stick to
47 the argument they are advancing, they are clawing back
48 anything that the worker does achieve through having a
49 higher than expected performance and through working
50 antisocial hours. So McDonald's average pay rates, which
51 they quote, they say you should not take the starting pay
52 rates, you should take the average pay rates; so their
53 average pay rates would be out because of that, because
54 people would not be getting those basic rates; they would
55 be being clawed back to pay for their overtime.
56
57 MR. MORRIS: On that subject, there was one thing I was going
58 to say, which is that up to the time when under-18s were
59 not allowed to work after ten or twelve at night, for
60 example, especially women, they would not have been able to
