Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 16


     
     1        the modules, and then obviously take them back out and put
     2        them on the lorry again.
     3
     4        He described the process of catching the birds on page 37,
     5        line 45.  When he was asked how the birds would be picked
     6        up to be put into the drawers, he said some would be by the
     7        legs, some would be by the wings, some would be by the back
     8        of their necks.  Generally speaking, they were picked up by
     9        one leg.  He said that usually six birds would be carried
    10        in each hand.  He did say it was not always six.  Some
    11        people would catch more; some people had smaller hands and
    12        would catch less; some people had bigger hands and would
    13        catch more.  Once they were caught they were thrown into a
    14        drawer.
    15
    16        He said, actually, that initially, when he started at the
    17        company, they were not always thrown in the drawer, that
    18        that had only started at the latter end of his time at
    19        Sun Valley, because the catching teams had been cut and the
    20        time that they had available to load the lorries was
    21        shorter.  Basically, the working pressure put on them was
    22        to get the work carried out in as short a length of time as
    23        possible.  He did say - this is day 115, page 38, line
    24        11: "When I started at Sun Valley I worked with five men
    25        and the timings were different, we did not have so much
    26        work load and the pressure was not so great to get this job
    27        carried out as fast as you can.  I would say that even at
    28        the end of the job, even..."
    29
    30        Well, it is not a hundred percent clear how this is
    31        written.  It appears to be saying that even at that time
    32        the job was to be carried out as fast as possible.  Then he
    33        says, "When you got less men to do the job, if there was
    34        one man off you did not get anyone else to replace that
    35        person" , and that however many there were in the team they
    36        were still expected to catch the same amount of chickens in
    37        the time given to load the lorry.
    38
    39        He also said on page 38, line 53, that if sick or injured
    40        bird were flapping or running about they would all go in
    41        the crate to the factory, and he said that on a number of
    42        occasions you would see there were birds with broken legs
    43        or wings or scabs on them and the farmers would say "This
    44        is all part of our crop and it goes to the factory."
    45        Obviously, we heard evidence when Miss Druce was in the
    46        witness box that that is contrary to the Codes of
    47        Practice.  I think it may have been illegal, to transport
    48        sick and injured birds.
    49
    50        Mr. Bruton went on to say that the only things that did not 
    51        get loaded into the crates were the dead birds or birds 
    52        that had been dead for days, whatever.  Mr. Bruton referred 
    53        on page 39 of his evidence to the fact that birds' heads
    54        would get trapped in the drawers from time to time, and he
    55        said that that happened basically because they were loading
    56        the sheds in semi-darkness and rushing about.  You would
    57        put the first two handfuls in the drawer and the last one
    58        would just throw his in and close the drawer, and a chicken
    59        might have had its head out and be looking around and that
    60        the person who was shutting the drawer would not basically

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