Day 173 - 16 Oct 95 - Page 45


     
     1        suggestion of mine, that he was keeping his head down by
     2        not replying, and he says that -- these were not his words
     3        -- he did not want the union involved because he did not
     4        want to lose control of his business.  You can ask him a
     5        question or two about that if you want.
     6
     7   MS. STEEL:  I mean, there are other issues particularly
     8        concerning pay, because there is -----
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not trying to deter you for a moment
    11        from going to what I saw as the three issues over Dublin
    12        which you say may help me with regards to other aspects of
    13        the case:  that is, hostility to unions, sacking or other
    14        forms of discrimination against union members, and low
    15        pay.
    16
    17        What I do not think -- just listen for a moment and then
    18        all by all means talk to Mr. Morris, and sit down and do it
    19        for a moment or two if you want -- what I am wondering is
    20        whether going into the detailed history really advances the
    21        matter there.
    22
    23   MS. STEEL:   I will try not to go into all of it, but there are
    24        specific parts that I do want to bring up.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Do bear that in mind.
    27
    28   MS. STEEL:   OK.  (To the witness)  Following your distribution
    29        of the employee booklets, the crew were invited to ask
    30        questions; and you have got recorded there that the main
    31        questions included payroll errors, the policy on sick pay,
    32        the crew room being too crowded and the heating in the crew
    33        room being turned off.  So you would accept that there was
    34        some discontent there?
    35        A.  I would accept that there was some errors, payroll
    36        errors.  You know, at this stage I cannot recall exactly
    37        what these errors were.  The crew room too crowded -- from
    38        memory, I do not understand why 15 people would be taking a
    39        break at one time; that surprised me to read it.  But the
    40        crew room heating had been turned off -- I do not
    41        understand the heating being turned off, if it ever was.
    42        I think it is simply put down as a comment by a crew
    43        person.
    44
    45   Q.   But they were expressing that they were not happy about
    46        something; they were expressing discontent about something?
    47        A.  They were certainly expressing those points right
    48        there.
    49
    50   Q.   Following that, you asked -- well, I will just read it 
    51        briefly. 
    52 
    53        "I invited any crew members who wished to talk about
    54        McDonald's policies or Company direction to come to talk to
    55        me on a personal basis after the meeting.  The people who
    56        approached me were Sean Mosrek, who complained about rates
    57        of pay.  He had previously been making £58 per week as a
    58        laboratory assistant."
    59
    60        Do you recollect that?

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