Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 41


     
     1        20 - as a motivation for getting involved with the union.
     2        And the other thing, of course, is that no employer with
     3        any intelligence, and I think McDonald's has a certain
     4        amount of that, would actually say, we are going to sack
     5        you for your trade union activity as we are entitled to do,
     6        of course, because you are infringing the Crew Handbook, or
     7        whatever, because they would know that that is something
     8        that can go to an industrial tribunal in certain
     9        circumstances.
    10
    11        So the difficulty, as Mr. Pearson explained, is that people
    12        may be being discriminated against, dismissed, or
    13        disciplined in some way, shape or form because of trade
    14        union type activity or even specific trade union activity
    15        at McDonald's and nobody would know, except for the
    16        individual concerned, because the employers are not going
    17        to say that.  Like the way, for example, they attempted
    18        to -- well, no, okay.  Whatever.  As we have heard from
    19        Mr. Magee, a number of people were interested in joining
    20        the union at that branch, but it was not allowed to
    21        develop.
    22
    23   MR. RAMPTON:   My Lord, I am suffering a degree of torment.
    24
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think we should try and do something.  It
    26        is not so much that the noise irritates me, but if I have
    27        diagnosed the noise correctly, it means that it is on
    28        battery rather than charge, and it may be running down.
    29
    30   MR. RAMPTON:   It may be a loose connection.
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You have pressed it in at the back?
    33
    34   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, I have tried all of that.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you manage without it?
    37
    38   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, I can.
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Okay, a number of people were
    41        interested in joining this ----
    42
    43   MR. MORRIS:   Yes, we heard that from Mr. Magee's
    44        Civil Evidence Act statement, in any case.  So Mr. Pearson
    45        was only backing up what we have already heard from
    46        Mr. Magee, as well, as far as his impression was.
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    49
    50   MR. MORRIS:   On page 23, moving on to the turnover figures
    51        which were in the document - I am trying to find the name
    52        of the actual document - employment flows in the catering
    53        hospitality industry, I think it was - at the bottom of
    54        page 23 he said it is produced by the research body for the
    55        hotel and catering industry and therefore it was very
    56        authoritative.  And I think it was funded by the employment
    57        department, so it could be seen to be pretty much reliable
    58        information.
    59
    60        I have not got the document in front of me, but he said

Prev Next Index