Day 118 - 01 May 95 - Page 52
1 to do something like that and actually something having
2 been printed out which is still in existence, Mr. Morris.
3
4 THE WITNESS: When I created -----
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is one thing if things are churned out as
7 a matter of course and kept for so many months; it is
8 another being able to print out a particular piece of
9 information from the computer and then keeping the
10 printout.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: If we can just consider that as a formal ---
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know what are actually asking for.
15
16 MR. MORRIS: -- request. If the ability exists to print out
17 -----
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, it does not mean say you have taken
20 advantage of it. I can word-process stuff into my
21 computer. Then I can print out of it that which I want.
22
23 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I can have second thoughts and eliminate it
26 and it is no longer on the computer. It does not matter
27 for your purposes, does it, because the fact that it can be
28 done in an exceptional circumstance, if required, may be
29 neither here nor there. Your point, and I would not have
30 thought it needed much elaboration -- what weight is to be
31 attached to it in due course we will have to see -- your
32 point is if you only do figures fortnightly you may well
33 have undiscovered breaches of either policy or Wages
34 Council Order or statute for all I know, which have been
35 committed in an individual week but get lost in the
36 fortnight because they are more than counter balanced by
37 the other week in the fortnight.
38
39 MR. MORRIS: Yes, I would contend it does not necessarily get
40 lost; it is deliberately concealed.
41
42 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, there would be some reasonable basis for
43 that, I am afraid to say. What is more what Mr. Morris is
44 asking him about is something that happened before the
45 beginning of 1990 because at that date, or before it, the
46 48 hours minimum required was abolished by law.
47
48 MR. MORRIS: Yes, but the overtime still applies.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is being put to you that you used the
51 fortnightly method of paying so that all your information
52 would be fortnightly, which would cover up the fact that
53 there had been breaches of statutory provisions in
54 individual weeks. That is what Mr. Morris has said; that
55 is the allegation what it comes to. What do you say to
56 that?
57 A. My answer to that is that is not so. I do not know why
58 McDonald's are on a fortnightly payroll but they always
59 have been ever since I have been in the company, and I
60 simply followed the procedure, and I have never given
