Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 26
1 too long because they need more money coming into their
2 pocket, and two weeks might be a jolly good compromise
3 between the two. You may pay your salaried people, who
4 have more money and might have some in the bank and so on,
5 on a monthly basis, but you do not want to do what used to
6 happen in the old days, especially when everyone was paid
7 in cash, and give them a pay packet every Friday morning,
8 or Thursday morning or whatever it is.
9
10 MS. STEEL: There is an additional benefit for the company,
11 which I think I have read somewhere in some of the
12 documents for the case, which is the reason why they
13 brought it in, which was if they do not pay the employees
14 for two weeks then they have an extra week where the money
15 is in the bank accruing interest and keeping them afloat.
16 I think that was when the company started off that was
17 brought in.
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There may be an advantage there, as well, but
20 it works all sorts of ways. What I am not prepared to
21 accept at the moment is it is done just so that breaches of
22 the law will not be uncovered.
23
24 MS. STEEL: I just wanted to say about the argument that was
25 going on a minute or two ago.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just wait a moment. (Pause) Yes. What were
28 you going to add?
29
30 MS. STEEL: Just about the business about whether or not people
31 want to work overtime. I think that generally, perhaps
32 with the exception of workaholics and maybe a few other
33 people, people do not really want to work overtime, they do
34 not want to work long hours, they get very tired. They
35 have no time for their home life and social life. That the
36 reality is that when you actually ask people who may say
37 they have asked or wanted overtime hours, extra hours, it
38 is because they need the money.
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, I thought that sooner or later one of
41 you would say that 25 percent is surprising, because the
42 people who are working around 39 hours a week were clearly
43 doing it as their job, or their principal job, and
44 therefore you do not get much pay after 39 hours as a crew
45 member in McDonald's, so you are quite happy, indeed may be
46 keen, to work more than 39 hours.
47
48 MS. STEEL: The reality is, if they were paid a decent wage in
49 the first place they would not need to work excessive
50 hours, and people should not be forced into making a choice
51 of either having to work excessive hours or not having
52 enough money to live on. They should be paid a decent wage
53 for the basic hours that they do.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Anyway, all this was led into because
56 you said full-timers were working over 39 hours a week.
57
58 MR. MORRIS: Yes, 25 percent of them.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: 25 percent of them.
