Day 181 - 01 Nov 95 - Page 29
1 overtime are people who have a number of performance review
2 rises under their belt; assume that for a moment, would
3 you?
4 A. Sure.
5
6 MR. MORRIS: We were stopped asking hypothetical questions,
7 especially ones that are completely idiotic.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is not idiotic, and I am afraid you are
10 beginning to do what Ms. Steel got cross with Mr. Rampton
11 for doing, and which I have to say I got cross, perhaps
12 excessively cross, with Mr. Rampton for doing a few days
13 ago, that is, answering the question from the well of the
14 court rather than letting the witness. If the witness
15 cannot draw the conclusion, he will say so, as he did in
16 relation to the last question
17
18 MR. MORRIS: OK.
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: As I said to Mr. Rampton the other week,
21 please let the witness give the evidence.
22
23 MR. RAMPTON: Mr. Morris does not have a wig, my Lord. That is
24 his only advantage in this situation.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Anyway I have made the point more than once
27 now.
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: Mr. Morris, in due course, will be allowed to give
30 evidence if he wants to do so. Can we follow on from that
31 assumption which I ask you to make? If that is right,
32 Mr. Pearson, then it would be a necessary conclusion, would
33 it not, that for such people they would almost always be
34 getting as much as or more than the statutory obligation as
35 laid down up until 1993?
36 A. The assumption that you -- I cannot answer the question
37 because the assumption on which the question is based, it
38 says: "Assume that the majority of full-timers have
39 performance increases". If you do make that assumption,
40 the question is, their rate would be beyond the statutory
41 minimum.
42
43 Now, the statutory minimum should apply before the
44 performance system applies. I mean, unless I have
45 completely gone adrift of your point ---
46
47 Q. No, no.
48 A. -- the statutory system, if I may finish, is the
49 foundation stone for the merit system. So, every employee,
50 full-time or part-time, needs to be paid more than the --
51 at least on the floor of the statutory, and then the merit
52 system comes in after every -- sorry, after four months
53 possibly, depending on performance.
54
55 Q. But, so far as overtime is concerned, Mr. Pearson, what
56 matters is that people who are at the statutory minimum do
57 not work hours for which they do not get paid the statutory
58 overtime or more. That is the important thing, is it not?
59 A. I think there were too many negatives in that.
60
