Day 118 - 01 May 95 - Page 78
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would assume that he is reasonably well
3 paid.
4
5 MR. MORRIS: Are you highly paid?
6 A. That depends upon your position.
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8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, it is not a question someone can answer
9 is it? Quite frankly I do not see why Mr. Nicholson should
10 answer questions about his pay.
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12 MR. MORRIS: Well, are McDonald's executives highly paid?
13 A. It depends upon your position I suppose. Compared with
14 yourself they are highly paid. Compared to Paul Ghetty
15 junior they are not. It is not a question I can answer.
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17 Q. Do you think it is fair to say that compared to McDonald's
18 executives McDonald's crew are low paid?
19 A. I do not accept that McDonald's crew are low paid.
20 I do not accept that.
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22 Q. Yes, but you said it depends upon the position?
23 A. I do accept McDonald's executives are paid more than
24 crew people, yes.
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26 Q. So is it fair to say that compared to McDonald's executives
27 McDonald's crew are low paid?
28 A. I have answered that question.
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30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is not a very clear question. If you are
31 putting that they are paid less than executives I would
32 guess the answer to that is yes and there could not be any
33 doubt about it. But what the leaflet does not allege is
34 that executives are extravagantly paid while crew members
35 are ground to the minimum. It says that the crew members
36 are lowly paid, which I would have thought must mean, as a
37 purely objective thing, that they are not paid a living
38 wage or anything which would allow them to live comfortably
39 which you may pursue, or they are paid less than people
40 either in the same industry or, more to the point which is
41 made in the leaflet, with people doing comparable work
42 outside the catering industry. That is all valid but I do
43 not think comparison with what the executives are paid is.
44 In almost every industry I can imagine executives in
45 relatively high positions are well paid, and people on the
46 shop floor may be not very well paid, and they are
47 certainly paid much less than the executives but that is
48 not really what this section of the leaflet is attacking.
49
50 MS. STEEL: I do not think that is necessarily true that the
51 leaflet is not about that. It is a matter of opinion about
52 what is considered to be low pay.
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54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: By all means stick at that by comparison with
55 other industries or catering or just that £X a week £2.50
56 or what is not very much money.
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58 MS. STEEL: But there is not any reason why we should not be
59 allowed to compare it to executive's pay and criticise it
60 it on those grounds.
