Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 47
1
2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have your point about the New Earnings
3 Survey, but are you saying that the figures in the table
4 from 8 to 11 are 1987 ones because ---
5
6 MR. MORRIS: No, no.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- I thought they were like with like.
9
10 MR. MORRIS: We are talking about G1. Yes, I am sure they are
11 like with like in the other Catering Review Group matter.
12
13 THE WITNESS: But, in my opinion, the most reliable pay data I
14 have seen where you are comparing like with like, from an
15 operational point of view, the data that matters to the
16 employer is the Catering Review Group. That is my opinion.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have got that point; all I was with these
19 questions trying to establish or have your evidence on, if
20 I am to make a comparison of the figures in the tables on
21 pages 8 to 11 with McDonald's starting rate, whether I am
22 comparing like with like or not. I understand what you say
23 about general sales assistant. What I was asking, whether
24 the basic rate is the equivalent of starting rate or might
25 be or might be something higher. That is all. Yes?
26
27 MR. MORRIS: Just on overtime, we have seen a memo -----
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you are going to a new topic, we will take
30 the five minute break there.
31
32 (Short adjournment)
33
34 MR. MORRIS: Now, the court has already heard that there was a
35 memo from Sid Nicholson, the chief personnel officer at
36 McDonald's, on 19th January 1990, regarding the
37 Employment Act 1989. Its first point to all managers was:
38 "Although the legal weekly maximum number of hours, 48,
39 that could be worked by young persons is now abolished, the
40 Company policy of a maximum number of 39 hours still
41 applies to all employees."
42
43 We later heard, which was document E2, I think, behind
44 Lynne Mead -- there is no point in going to it -- that the
45 Company prints out charts of the number of hours worked at
46 the end of the quarter 31/3/95, that is this year; 5.65 of
47 all employees were working 40 hours or above, that is 5.68
48 employees; and, indeed, they would be, obviously, full-time
49 employees, or generally full-time employees. So some very
50 large section of the full-timers at McDonald's would be
51 working over 39 hours.
52
53 What is the Wage Council's, or what was the Wage Council's
54 view, before it was abolished, on the payment of overtime?
55 A. Time and a half, 39 hours; that is the standard
56 formula, and that existed up to 1993 and survived -- the
57 severe pruning of wages councils was in 1986.
58
59 Now, as a member of two of the three catering wages
60 councils, and as a member of one of the appeals bodies, and
