Day 303 - 19 Nov 96 - Page 07


     
     1        that he described as valid trade union activities, which,
     2        of course, are protected in that Employment Protection Act,
     3        so it is his expert view, as a member of the wage council
     4        and an expert in this field, that McDonald's is prescribing
     5        activities which are specifically protected under the law
     6        and they are prescribing them in their Crew Handbook for
     7        all their employees.
     8
     9        He said that the practise of employers trying to circumvent
    10        overtime laws - this is at the top of page 54 - and
    11        procedures, that the way the wage council inspector would
    12        deal with them, although they obviously have got strong
    13        powers, is they would not rush to court if they found out
    14        about these kind of things, employers would be cautioned.
    15
    16        The number of prosecutions nationally, and do not forget we
    17        are talking about 400,000 workplaces, I think that is in
    18        the south-east, was in single figures.  Generally, firms
    19        will be reminded of the obligation to actually calculate it
    20        properly, he said, and not 'busk it', which means to play
    21        fast and loose with the law in the hope they might get
    22        there in a certain percentage of cases or all cases, which
    23        of course McDonald's cannot do because of the discrepancy.
    24
    25        I tried to contact Mr. Pearson last night to have a
    26        discussion about some of these things but I could not get
    27        hold of him.
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have to rely on the evidence.
    30
    31   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  I think the evidence is pretty clear on what
    32        the law is and what McDonald's practice is, so....  You did
    33        say yourself actually it is a matter of law which you have
    34        to decide.  That is what you said on page 54.
    35
    36        He did say that McDonald's written policy of not permitting
    37        crew members to work more than 39 hours per week, which it
    38        stated in the 1986 Crew Handbook internal page 41, he said
    39        on page 55 of his testimony on day 181 that that would be
    40        just the thing which would be taken -- like to be taken at
    41        face value as a definitive statement.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What, by the inspectors?
    44
    45   MR. MORRIS:  By the inspector.   I said: "Would that be the kind
    46        of thing that would be very likely to be taken at face
    47        value as the definitive statement?"  And do not forget we
    48        saw the memo from Sid Nicholson saying exactly the same
    49        thing as well.  He answered:  "Yes; not by any company, not
    50        by your small business, your cafe; the record would
    51        probably need to be examined.  But for a significant
    52        national employer with organised personnel practices....on
    53        the face of it, this was precisely the kind of
    54        documentation that would be required to
    55        support....McDonald's in this case."
    56
    57        And then he quotes that what I just quoted.  And yet, as it
    58        turns out, and he says:  "A very substantial percentage are
    59        working overtime each week".  This, of course, is a
    60        question from Mr. Rampton -- no, it is re-examination

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