Day 174 - 17 Oct 95 - Page 24


     
     1        position at that time was that they wanted to have some
     2        meeting with you which they wanted the Labour Court to
     3        broker or organise, because you were not willing to meet
     4        with them?
     5        A.  No.  As I indicated already in my correspondence, in
     6        the previous correspondence here, OK, when I replied to the
     7        union I asked them to put their proposals in writing, and
     8        I did not have a response to that.  This letter here, it
     9        would appear to be an acknowledgment of a letter I received
    10        from the Labour Court who, it would appear that they had
    11        received some correspondence from the union.
    12
    13   Q.   Why did you -----
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL: You had written to the ITGWU about
    16        implementing the second phase?
    17        A.  That is correct, my Lord, yes.
    18
    19   MR. MORRIS:  Why did you not keep a copy of that letter?
    20        A.  I am sorry, of which letter, Mr. Morris?
    21
    22   Q.   The letter to the union.
    23        A.  But I did keep a copy of it.
    24
    25   Q.   It is not attached to it, which it is said it was attached
    26        to this one?
    27        A.  Well, you may recall we were just looking at the
    28        correspondence in November 1979 where I wrote two letters
    29        to the union.  Sorry.
    30
    31   Q.   You sent them an old letter?
    32        A.  Sorry, I do not understand what you mean by that.
    33
    34   Q.   This is on 24th March, 1980, the following six months
    35        later.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL: What are you trying to get at now?
    38
    39   MS. STEEL:   Can I just say, it cannot have been the letter that
    40        you sent in November 1979, because it says: "I have
    41        pleasure in enclosing a copy of a letter which we sent to
    42        the ITGWU confirming the National Understanding second
    43        phase had been implemented for entire hourly paid staff
    44        since 1st March 1980."  There must, therefore, have been a
    45        letter written since that date.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is what I thought I asked a moment ago.
    48        You had written to the ITGWU about implementing
    49        the second phase?
    50        A.  Yes.  Well, I cannot remember which phase, my Lord.  As 
    51        I said, the national ----- 
    52 
    53   Q.   It says there.
    54        A.  That is what we have done, that is correct, if that is
    55        what we did.  You see, the national wage agreement would
    56        have been, from memory, structured over a couple of phases
    57        normally, sometimes even three phases, where you would have
    58        different times in which a percentage increase would have
    59        been applied to everybody's wages.  So if it is talking
    60        about second phase, then that is what it would have been.

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