Day 102 - 13 Mar 95 - Page 28
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You said that your requirements per person
2 and per team were less than the average for the industry.
3 Mr. Morris is asking you what you meant by that.
4 A. Well, I meant precisely as you have described, that the
5 amount of work that we were expecting of our people was
6 less than the industry average.
7
8 MR. MORRIS: But you have an unusually close proximity to most
9 of your birds, have you not, in terms of transport
10 distances?
11 A. Yes, I think generally our distances are shorter.
12
13 Q. So that would affect that percentage, would it not?
14 A. It might do, yes.
15
16 Q. Your specifications or your job analyses for the catchers
17 (which Mr. Rampton referred to you) when you said in your
18 statement: "It relates to the welfare of both the birds
19 and of our staff", are these the job descriptions for your
20 own catchers?
21 A. They are job descriptions laid out for our own catchers
22 but they apply equally to contract catchers.
23
24 MS. STEEL: When you have been to see catching, how long have
25 you stayed there?
26 A. I have stayed there any time up to an hour.
27
28 Q. The staff, would they have known you were there?
29 A. The staff would know.
30
31 Q. The catchers?
32 A. Yes, they would know that I was there and they would
33 know who I was.
34
35 Q. So that might affect the way that they work?
36 A. Yes, of course it might.
37
38 Q. Is it fair to say that, on average, there would be a lorry
39 every 45 minutes coming along to be filled up?
40 A. Yes, I think that would be fair, yes.
41
42 Q. Does the figure of 14 chickens a minute per person sound
43 something that you have heard before?
44 A. That is not a figure I am familiar with.
45
46 Q. Is it correct that sometimes catchers can work up to 18
47 hours in a day?
48 A. I would be very surprised if that was the case. They
49 are allowed to do a certain amount of over-time but the
50 eight hour day is the norm.
51
52 Q. The eight hour day is the length of any one team's shift?
53 A. Yes.
54
55 Q. Do you actually know how many hours in total that catching
56 is done for in a day?
57 A. Catching, in total, will usually start in the early
58 afternoon and continue right through the night. So, it
59 probably goes on for up to 18 hours.
60
