Day 181 - 01 Nov 95 - Page 16
1 Q. Right, OK.
2 A. Supported by trade unions.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: Is there anything else you want to say which you
5 have not had a chance to?
6 A. Yes, there was just one point I wanted to come back on,
7 the Catering Review Group data, if I may just briefly,
8 which I think I described yesterday as premium labour
9 market information. I recalled overnight that I was aware
10 of how at least one other member of this pay club used the
11 data. It concerns Pizza Hut, which is a comparable
12 organisation. It may not be necessary to refer to the
13 schedules (which I am sure are still fresh in people's
14 minds), but Pizza Hut, the labour market strategy of
15 Pizza Hut was to seek to organise its pay around the upper
16 quartile. If you remember, that was the top quarter of pay
17 rates emerging from this survey.
18
19 It is an illustration, if you like, of why employers join
20 the pay club, that they get the data in and then they set
21 their pay rates knowingly to pitch themselves in a place in
22 the market. So, Pizza Hut would have been up at the upper
23 quartile end. That is the point at which -- it would set a
24 minimum wage at the upper quartile.
25
26 I think it was obvious from yesterday that McDonald's was
27 gearing itself towards the lower quartile and, arguably,
28 below.
29
30 MS. STEEL: OK. Thank you.
31
32 Cross-examined by MR. RAMPTON Q.C.
33
34 MR. RAMPTON: Mr. Pearson, do you have a copy there still of
35 your second statement?
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Pale blue II -- unless you have one in front
38 of you -- March 1995.
39 A. I do, March 1995, yes.
40
41 MR. RAMPTON: Have you got it there?
42
43 MR. MORRIS: It might help him if the witness puts away that
44 last file, which was the Defendants' -- I am not sure if
45 that is the Wage Council?
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Leave them there.
48
49 MR. RAMPTON: Thank you very much, Mr. Morris.
50
51 (To the witness) Do you have your second statement there,
52 the March 1995 one?
53 A. I do.
54
55 Q. Could you turn, please, to the page which is the fifth page
56 in fact, which has paragraph 14 on it?
57 A. I have that.
58
59 Q. You have. I do not know what we call these -- bullet
60 points, do we? There are some squares on the top half of
