Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 51
1 10 quid, so what is he complaining about", or something --
2 he says that they used to spend hours negotiating over very
3 marginal improvements in the overtime provisions and in the
4 wages councils, where, you know, hundredths of a penny on
5 the hour were seen as very important -- especially, of
6 course, if you are very low paid -- and that for people on
7 low pay, small amounts of money can count a great deal on
8 the hourly rate.
9
10 He actually turned out to have sat on the relevant wage
11 council body that was adjudicating at the relevant time:
12 1986/1987. He says he could not be sure, on day 180, but
13 on day 181 he was sure. I think, yes, he was a
14 representative of the union, one of the representatives.
15
16 On page 56, he deals with the lack of increase, only a 5
17 pence increase in three years since the wage councils
18 abolition.
19
20 He said the whole point of wages councils minimum rate was
21 to keep pace with inflation. Inflation proofing, he said
22 at line 54, was a sine que nom of the system; otherwise,
23 what was the point of it?
24
25 He says top of page 57, that in the -- it is hard to
26 understand what exactly he is saying. He says, in his
27 opinion, high unemployment amongst young people makes this
28 possible; i.e., to have such low pay increases. You said,
29 well, he does not have to spell that out, presumably
30 because it was just obvious common sense; you kind of
31 interrupted there.
32
33 So, there is an example of how McDonald's are taking
34 advantage of people who have very little choice; and the
35 only question then becomes: are young people and black
36 people and women the people in the wage market who have the
37 highest levels of unemployment and the least choice --
38 which we would say is common sense and common knowledge.
39
40 Then he says: "Take away wages councils, take away the
41 floor, take away the minimum; the market prevails and the
42 unequal nature of the employment relationship" -- and he is
43 interrupted there. What he is basically saying is that, as
44 it says in the fact sheet, the wage councils were a
45 protection, and that when the market prevails without
46 statutory protection, the unequal nature of the employment
47 relationship, i.e. the employer has all the power and the
48 workers do not have any, without any union protection
49 especially, inevitably wages will go down. He says "is
50 revealed", at line 44, page 57.
51
52 If I can just finish this day off, I think it would be an
53 idea.
54
55 He goes on to the Health and Safety report, and he
56 concludes page 60, line 8: "It does not mince its words,
57 does it? There is no more authoritative body in this
58 country on health and safety work practices." He believes:
59 "....it is a shocking report for this particular reason,
60 that it goes to the heart of the work system in the company
