Day 134 - 13 Jun 95 - Page 55
1 other day which was why the Company put a cap on the amount
2 that people could earn. Yes, it is actually on page 686,
3 the third paragraph down. Why is it you say these maximum
4 rates of pay have been introduced?
5 A. Really, they address the point of there being a rate
6 for a job that people performing certain types of tasks and
7 functions as with throughout the management ranks and so on
8 that we have maximum rates, which then mean that people
9 performing at different levels or different experience and
10 different levels of seniority are awarded different pay
11 rates, different pay scales. It prevents people from
12 overlapping too much in those pay scales.
13
14 Q. So it stops somebody who is a crew member earning as much
15 as somebody who is salaried?
16 A. Yes, it would most likely do that, yes.
17
18 Q. Is that not a complete contradiction of your so-called
19 performance-related pay?
20 A. No, no, it is not because people can perform at
21 whatever level they are functioning at, whatever their job
22 position is, and they can perform well and be rewarded at
23 that, but that does mean to say that -- I mean, clearly the
24 principle of everyone being paid the same wage is one that
25 could be debated. It is not one that is inherent in our
26 pay structure, but people within the level that they work
27 at, their position, they can be rewarded for performance
28 accordingly.
29
30 What I would say in commenting, having worked with it, is
31 that what happens is if you have -- if you do not have a
32 structure like that, what you find is that you have people
33 who perceive that there is unfairness between employees,
34 between their own level of experience and skill and so on.
35
36 Q. You are not concerned that crew members might perceive
37 unfairness in that executives are receiving huge amounts of
38 money compared to what they are earning?
39 A. I think it is very unlikely that they would actually
40 perceive that other than that we probably all would like to
41 earn more than we do. I think that is probably a sort of
42 generally perceived emotion, but I think that they would
43 accept it is likely that an executive would receive a
44 higher rate of pay. I think that is a fairly accepted
45 view. It may not be accepted by you but .....
46
47 Q. Going on British Gas, it is not accepted by quite a lot of
48 people.
49
50 MR. RAMPTON: Very helpful comment.
51
52 MS. STEEL: At this time you also froze the rates of pay for
53 premium hours?
54 A. Yes.
55
56 Q. What was the reason for that?
57 A. The reason for that was because we wanted to move to
58 having only two day parts. What we did was to increase
59 more -- I cannot quote the figures but I know that this is
60 the principle -- we increased the evening rate more so that
