Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 41
1 A. -- the Catering Review Group is a confidential, as
2 I understand it, confidential pay club, and this
3 information is not normally in the public domain, and it
4 does -----
5
6 Q. One question, is it authoritative?
7 A. It is authoritative partly because of the names of the
8 blue chip companies that subscribe to it -- and they are
9 all listed there -- nobody is missing from that blue chip
10 collection of catering employers nationally, ranging from
11 your Forte, which is the largest of the catering companies
12 in the UK, obviously through directly comparable employers
13 in the fast food sector, Burger King, Kentucky Fried
14 Chicken, Pizza Hut, Pizza Direct and, of course, Whitbread
15 with its Beefeater and so on. These are directly
16 comparable -- these organisations have directly comparable
17 operations and these wages rates are directly relevant to
18 the McDonald's labour market, if you like.
19
20 So, the Catering Review Group is a pay club, and there is
21 this information exchange between these organisations on a
22 confidential basis, I have always understood, so that each
23 may be more intelligent about the general level of pay in
24 the market and, indeed, the statistics -----
25
26 Q. Just -----
27 A. I am sorry?
28
29 Q. Sorry, I think we have the general view on that, but what
30 is your conclusion from casting your eye over these
31 statistics in this document? We have gone through it in
32 full in some detail?
33 A. That McDonald's basic rates are at or below the lower
34 quartile of the market, LQ in the tables. Lower quartile,
35 in other words, lowest one quarter. It is the figure at
36 which 25 per cent or below of workers are -- employees are
37 paid. So, your lower quartile figure of all areas, table
38 1.1, is £3.30 per hour, that is the all areas table, for a
39 general sales assistant. It is not the median which is the
40 mid-point in a range; it is the lower quartile, that is,
41 the lowest quarter, is £3.30.
42
43 Now, I was surprised by these figures because I was under
44 the impression from my work in the T&G that McDonald's was
45 actually in the middle of the front rather than down the
46 tail end of pay.
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Which one are you looking at?
49 A. I am looking at page 8, table 1.1. Table 1.1, the top
50 table is the all areas. This is the national summary
51 figure of the entire sample.
52
53 Q. But you are taking general sales assistant, are you?
54 A. Just as an example, yes. It is the highest of the
55 lower quartile figures at £3.30 an hour. So, the lower
56 quartile, general sales assistant, on the national sample
57 of all those, is it, 12 premium catering bodies, is £3.30
58 an hour, and the regular McDonald's basic rate is £3.30.
59
60 MR. MORRIS: For Inner London?
