Day 310 - 04 Dec 96 - Page 11


     
     1        reasons why people leave all the time for the high
     2        turnover; the place is, therefore, not somewhere where
     3        anybody would want to work and as soon as they discover
     4        what it is like they go.  That is the first point.  The
     5        second point is the cross-heading "Trained to Sweat" .
     6        Everybody knows what a sweat shop is.  It is where there is
     7        that very combination of bad pay, poor conditions of which
     8        any right thinking person would disapprove.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   At the moment, I do not have any real
    11        reservation that the overall and principal sting is that
    12        the First and Second Plaintiffs pay bad wages for bad
    13        working conditions.  It is just whether that is covered by
    14        your pleading.  At the moment it seems to me it is, by the
    15        first line of N.
    16
    17   MR. RAMPTON:   Yes.  In effect it is saying, if one uses two
    18        words rather than a lot of words, McDonald's are bad
    19        employers, which is defamatory of the Company.
    20
    21   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The answer to the headline is "awful", is it
    22        not?
    23
    24   MR. RAMPTON:   Sorry?
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   The answer to the headline is "awful".
    27
    28   MR. RAMPTON:   Yes, exactly.  "Awful".
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Or pretty bad.
    31
    32   MR. RAMPTON:   Yes.  So bad that nobody would go and work there
    33        unless they had no other choice, perhaps because they were
    34        members of a disadvantaged group of society.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I see that as the fundamental basis of the
    37        Defendants' case, which I have to ask myself whether it is
    38        justified or not.
    39
    40        Now, I want to make sure I understand what you are saying
    41        about comment here.
    42
    43   MR. RAMPTON:   Yes.
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Because, apart from something I want to come
    46        back to in relation to the rainforest, which you might
    47        prompt me to do if I forget as to whether there is any
    48        comment on the rainforest part -- that is, the ecological
    49        catastrophe and wrecking the planet, I would like your
    50        assistance on.  'Bad' would very often, if not normally, be 
    51        seen as an expression of opinion? 
    52 
    53   MR. RAMPTON:   It depends on the context.
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But it depends on the context.
    56
    57   MR. RAMPTON:   Or could; so would 'low'.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I see what -- yes.  If they are statements
    60        of fact, if "bad conditions" is a statement of fact, then

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