Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 24


     
     1        said you were not sure.
     2
     3   MS. STEEL:  I do not know whether it is an outer London or a
     4        general figure you gave, but you said the starting rate was
     5        £3.10 an hour.  Currently, for outer London stores, it is
     6        £3.15 an hour; is it not?
     7        A.  I am not sure but it is going to be somewhere round
     8        there, yes.
     9
    10   Q.   During your evidence-in-chief you said that wages have
    11        steadily risen over time.  Would you accept that five pence
    12        in 2 years is not much of a rise?
    13        A.  That is five per cent of the entire story.  The people
    14        employed in McDonald's have regular pay reviews, normally 3
    15        times a year, as I remember the system, and the average
    16        hourly rate for the starters and the veterans, those who
    17        have been around a while, is something approaching £3.80,
    18        certainly country-wide, and I would be surprised if in
    19        London it was not nearer £4.00.
    20
    21   Q.   Is that the median?
    22        A.  That is the average.
    23
    24   Q.   Yes.  What sort of average is it?
    25        A.  Numerical average.
    26
    27   Q.   Is it a median or a mode?
    28        A.  It is just a numerical average, adding them up,
    29        dividing the total by the number of people, and coming up
    30        with an hourly rate.
    31
    32   Q.   That is not true, is it, that the average is £3.80 an hour?
    33        A.  The average rate for the numbers my HR people give me
    34        are, for the country, somewhere around £3.80 is my last
    35        recollection per hour.  Certainly, people's wages ----
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What do you mean "your HR people"?
    38        A.  Human resources.
    39
    40   MS. STEEL:  I think for the Heathrow store we were told that the
    41        average there was about £3.45 an hour.
    42
    43   MR. MORRIS:  That was in the official print out?
    44        A.  It could be.
    45
    46   MS. STEEL:  Heathrow would not be untypical, would it?
    47        A.  Well, it is only a couple of years old compared to
    48        Woolwich, and store No. 100 and store No. 200 with much
    49        longer serving people, people who have had a chance to have
    50        not just the, you know, the second and third rise, but the 
    51        fifth and the sixth and the seventh. It is a matter of 
    52        tenure as well. 
    53
    54   Q.   But in terms of the majority of people who work for
    55        McDonald's who are not there for those lengths of time, the
    56        basic rate has only risen something like five pence in 2
    57        years.  Would you agree that that is not much of a rise?
    58        A.  No, I would not agree with that actually, not given the
    59        market, the conditions, the fact that they remain at a
    60        starting rate a few days and then they are off to something

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