Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 34


     
     1        average of that low paid section of workers who are below
     2        the decency threshold about £174, but at that time -- but
     3        of course McDonald's workers would be substantially less
     4        where, if we count full-timers as being something like 35
     5        hours, may be 37 hours or something -- they would have been
     6        getting something like may be £150 a week.
     7
     8        That is if they were getting a full compliment of hours.
     9        On page 8 -----
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I take your point about no guaranteed hours,
    12        but the picture I have got is that the people who were
    13        classed as full time essentially did get their expected
    14        number of hours.  That the people who were at risk, if
    15        anyone was, were the part-timers.  That does not gainsay a
    16        point you have got that if I multiply so many pounds a week
    17        by 39 you would say you still come up with a pretty paltry
    18        figure, but -- was that not-----?
    19
    20   MR. MORRIS:   Well, it probably averaged out as that, but there
    21        no doubt were exceptions, may be even a large percentage of
    22        full-timers who were not getting, say, 39 hours a week,
    23        just as there were a large section of the 25 percent who
    24        were getting over 39 hours a week.  Then, you know, by
    25        definition, there must have been some getting less of
    26        whatever the average was.  I did remember -- no.  I thought
    27        it was a figure that we had as an average, but we did not
    28        have one.  But, yes, I don't think that is a major thing.
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   What it seems to me, if there is a vice in
    31        not giving guaranteed hours, is that it may not be a
    32        problem with the full-timers, although one can see it is a
    33        greater problem to them if they do not get hours, because
    34        they may want every last pound in order to pay their weekly
    35        bills.  But the people on part-time hours, a number of them
    36        are students or they may be women contributing to the
    37        family budget and they would like to think they can be sure
    38        of working a certain number of hours per week.
    39
    40        What is said on the other side is, well, of course, but the
    41        system which does not allow guaranteed hours does have a
    42        flexibility which means they can be offered some hours
    43        work.  And that is a difficulty I see with lack of
    44        guaranteed hours.
    45
    46        Low pay is another thing absolutely.  That I see as more
    47        absolute.
    48
    49   MR. MORRIS:   The point about the no guaranteed hours thing as
    50        well, though, to be crystal clear, is it does give an
    51        enormous amount of power to the management.
    52
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    54
    55   MR. MORRIS:   So, carrying on with page 8, Mr. Pearson explains
    56        his site visits that he made as an expert on our behalf to
    57        McDonald's stores, two of them in Hackney, I think they
    58        were in Hackney -- no, one in Seven Sisters in Islington
    59        and one in Hackney, Mare Street, were of limited value due
    60        to the constraints imposed by McDonald's.  That was in his

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