Day 134 - 13 Jun 95 - Page 41
1 having guaranteed hours ---
2 A. No.
3
4 Q. -- is there?
5 A. No, there is not.
6
7 Q. There is nothing there, is there, related to being
8 pressurised such as: "I am sometimes pressurised to work
9 at unnatural speed", or something like that, or "I am under
10 pressure. I am sometimes put under unfair pressure" or
11 something like that?
12 A. No, there is not, but I would say here that I do not
13 know too much about this positive/negative questioning that
14 you referred to earlier. But it seems to me that I have
15 heard things referred to about referenda and the way they
16 are worded, and it would seem to me that actually to
17 suggest something along the lines that you described about,
18 you know, "I am sometimes made to work at unnatural speed"
19 would actually be going a bit too far in terms of
20 suggesting an answer actually, in terms of putting it "an
21 unnatural speed", that is slightly unlikely wording, I
22 think.
23
24 Q. Ms. Mead, that is exactly my point.
25 A. I know the point you are making.
26
27 Q. It is suggested when you are asking for agreement, and it
28 might be suggested if you ask for something that was
29 negative?
30 A. No, I do not think it is to do with the positive and
31 negative, but it is about the way that you worded it that
32 I took issue. I understand the point you are putting about
33 the wording positively or negatively. We have explored
34 that.
35
36 Q. But in terms of the content of the actual concerns that you
37 are defining staff, you are interested in what the staff's
38 actual opinion is, there is nothing saying such as, for
39 example in a positive way: "I do not ever have to work in
40 an unsafe environment", that would be a helpful question,
41 would it not?
42 A. I would agree that something else on safety, something
43 on safety, would be helpful, yes. In fact, I think we have
44 incorporated that or plan to for the next time and in the
45 management one that we are about to do.
46
47 Q. Especially in the light of the Company's claims that it has
48 redefined what "hustle" means, although hustle still exists
49 as a culture that is encouraged in the Company, you would
50 have thought that you would want to monitor whether
51 "hustle" was still being used in many cases to get people
52 to work at unsafe speeds, or running or sliding or anything
53 like that? You would be concerned to know what the actual
54 staff felt about that, would you not?
55 A. I have already said that I would agree that something
56 on safety would be relevant, but I think there is something
57 to bear in mind when looking at this is as well that you
58 could go on and ask thousands of questions actually. That
59 is one of the things we have found before, that sometimes
60 if you make a survey too long, it can be off-putting to
