Day 166 - 28 Sep 95 - Page 58
1 final speech that it be so.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: Yes, we are calling an expert on employment
4 conditions, Mr. Phil Pearson. If there is anything we
5 forget to put to him (because we have not done the
6 preparations for his examination-in-chief yet), then we
7 would welcome any questions that you have to ask him
8 anyway.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you ought in one way or another to
11 set it out. If it is not in the statement now, prepare
12 something, however short, by way of supplemental. Apart
13 from anything else, I will have it in my bundle and I will
14 know it is there. Is it in Mr. Pearson already?
15
16 MR. MORRIS: I do not know. He has written quite a wide ranging
17 statement about -----
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Check at some time because whatever
20 difficulty you have with people who have worked as crew at
21 McDonald's and have gone off to some other part of the
22 country to work for someone else or carry on with their
23 studies, whatever difficulty you have getting supplemental
24 statements from them, I would not have thought you would
25 have much difficulty getting one from Mr. Pearson clearly.
26
27 MR. MORRIS: Getting hold of him is not difficult, it is the
28 time factor.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I agree, but if you make the point to him,
31 I should have thought Mr. Pearson could turn something out
32 which quite concisely tells me what his experience is of
33 this matter. He is TGWU which is a union, I assume, which
34 covers a number of industries and kind of jobs which is not
35 focused on one in particular.
36
37 MR. MORRIS: He is not currently employed by the Transport and
38 General Workers Union but he was -----
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am assuming he has experience of a number
41 of industries rather than one in particular.
42
43 MR. MORRIS: Certainly. Anyway, there we are.
44
45 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, if I may, I would correct one thing that
46 the Defendants have been saying. My belief is that the
47 Wages Council requirements for the payment of overtime
48 apply only to workers 21 years or over in age.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am conscious of that. I know we have got
51 the argument about what the effect of their provisions
52 was. I have a grip of all that.
53
54 MS. STEEL: So if they are not protected by law, McDonald's is
55 happy to exploit them.
56
57 MR. RAMPTON: That is a fine comment, but your Lordship is, with
58 respect, quite right. If some different case from what is
59 in these Wages Council documents is to be advanced, then we
60 must have notice of it.
