Day 118 - 01 May 95 - Page 14


     
     1        you are entitled not to pay overtime?
     2        A.  I do not need to.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Mr. Nicholson is saying that the way it was
     5        done was a legal way.  You might be right or wrong about
     6        that, but if you have something to put to him that says
     7        that it is wrong, apart from page 646, which says it is not
     8        a complete or authoritative statement of the law, is there
     9        such a document?  For all I know, you may be perfectly
    10        right, but do you know what the authority for column 6 is,
    11        where that comes from?
    12
    13   MS. STEEL:   I do not know.  That just says it is a summary of
    14        what the position is.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You see, they are notes for guidance.  It may
    17        not be a summary of what the position is.  I do not know.
    18        This is a new area to me.  It may be, for instance, that
    19        there is a minimum legal weekly rate as on page 639 -- that
    20        there is a minimum legal hourly rate as on 639.
    21
    22   MS. STEEL:  It is actually on page 641.
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Right.  Let us have a look at that.
    25
    26   MS. STEEL:  Between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. the crew or the workers
    27        should get an extra one-eighth of the hourly rate.
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You never asked, so far as you are aware, the
    30        Department for a letter saying that the way you were doing
    31        it was satisfactory?
    32        A.  I have spoken to the chief wages inspector for our
    33        region about this, and he was quite satisfied that that was
    34        acceptable because the wording is the occasional works "in
    35        addition to the minimum rates".  If our people were all
    36        above the minimum rate, then that money had been paid, and
    37        he was satisfied that the conditions had been met.
    38
    39   MS. STEEL:   The workers who had not had a wage rise would not
    40        be above the minimum wage; they would be at the minimum
    41        rate?
    42        A.  It would be most unlikely for anyone who had not had a
    43        wage rise to be asked to work overtime.  They would be in a
    44        learning position, 21 days.
    45
    46   Q.   The maximum that they can get on the first wage rise is 15
    47        pence anyway; is that not right?
    48        A.  Yes.
    49
    50   Q.   That would only be the ones that were really outstanding? 
    51        A.  At the end of 21 days, yes. 
    52 
    53   Q.   Most of them would get between nothing and 10 pence which
    54        would not be enough, would it, to make up either one-eighth
    55        of the hourly rate in addition or one quarter of the hourly
    56        rate in addition?
    57        A.  I am satisfied that the wages inspectors were unable to
    58        find a single occasion on which a crew member was not
    59        adequately remunerated, and met the requirements of the
    60        Wages Council order.

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