Day 143 - 27 Jun 95 - Page 50
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Look, let me take over for a moment and then
2 you can come back. Do you know whether the union wanted,
3 but McDonald's rejected, a provision that all part-time
4 employees should be employed for a fix guaranteed income
5 based on a fixed number of hours per week or month?
6 A. My Lord, I cannot help you.
7
8 Q. In other words, they had a guaranteed minimum income based
9 on a guaranteed minimum of hours?
10 A. My Lord, I did not -- I was not in the negotiations.
11
12 Q. Do you know whether there was in the industry apart from
13 McDonald's a practice to that effect, that part-time
14 workers ---
15 A. No, I do not.
16
17 Q. -- should have such a provision in their favour?
18 A. I do not, no, my Lord.
19
20 MR. MORRIS: I think Mr. Stein had said -- I might have got the
21 country wrong -- something to the effect that the union
22 wanted to sack all the part-time employees?
23 A. That I knew.
24
25 Q. Right, and you said that because -----
26 A. That they wanted to sack part-time employees?
27
28 Q. Yes, well -----
29 A. Not necessarily all of them.
30
31 Q. The reality is, is it not, Mr. Stein, that that was not the
32 aim of the union? The aim of the union was to get
33 McDonald's to comply with the protection afforded by the
34 agreement that applied to the rest of industry, including a
35 minimum income for those that are in part-time employment?
36 A. I disagree with that. I know that the employees, in
37 particular one of the stores, Mike Thorell's store, were
38 very upset over that. In fact, I think, if I recall, they
39 circulated or passed in a petition because they did not
40 want to be sacked and the union's demand, one of the
41 union's demand ------
42
43 Q. Who told them they would be sacked?
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You must let him finish, first of all.
46 A. One of the union's demands would have required them to
47 be sacked. That is what I do recall.
48
49 MR. MORRIS: Did employees rise up against having a protection
50 of having a guaranteed income even though they were
51 part-time?
52 A. I can tell -----
53
54 Q. Did they complain about that provision in the agreement?
55 A. Sir, I can only tell you what I heard, what I observed,
56 what I witnessed. I can tell you what was of concern to
57 the employees in that restaurant at that time.
58
59 Q. Who told them they would be sacked under the union's -----
60 A. I have no idea. All I know is that that was a commonly
