Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 63


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, but I think you are really being prodded
     2        to see if you have any criticism of them, you see?
     3        A.  Yes.  You see, the point is that the performance
     4        related pay systems which measure -- which directly measure
     5        an employee's contribution and which are normally paid on
     6        top of basic rates, the measurement of performance is
     7        usually undertaken by line managers and attracts the
     8        primary criticism of the subjective nature of that
     9        assessment rather than its intended objective nature.
    10
    11        Secondly, when you judge the individual, it is difficult to
    12        include the team aspect of that contribution.  So the
    13        subjective -- the subjectivity and the difficulty of
    14        measuring team contribution are two weaknesses of the
    15        system.
    16
    17   MR. MORRIS:  A simple question can be, is performance related
    18        pay of increases of five, ten or 15 pence possibly after
    19        some months on top of the basic rate, or whatever it is,
    20        £3.30, or whatever, £3.05 or £3.20, what have you got to
    21        say about that?
    22        A.  A significant problem with performance related pay
    23        systems in low wage companies is the difficulty of
    24        establishing an incentive margin for good performance.
    25        That is the problem.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not sure I understand what you mean by
    28        that.
    29        A.  Well, if your basic hourly rate is fairly high and you
    30        are rewarded five per cent on £10 an hour, you, you know,
    31        gain 50 pence, do you not?
    32
    33   Q.   What you are saying five, ten or 15 pence is not much of an
    34        incentive?  Is that what you are saying?
    35        A.  Yes, I am trying to say that in, amongst low wage, in
    36        low wage companies like McDonald's the incentive margins
    37        are very slim, and I think what I have just said is a
    38        fairly widely recognised weakness of performance related
    39        pay systems; particularly, of course, in a company with a
    40        very high labour turnover where, perhaps, by the time the
    41        first or second performance measurement comes in the staff
    42        has gone anyway.  That is the trouble with it.
    43
    44   MR. MORRIS:  We are just checking the Crew Handbook for
    45        something.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    48
    49   MS. STEEL:   If you could get pink Volume XI, please.  If you
    50        turn to tab 1, bundle page 19, there is the performance 
    51        guidelines on that page. 
    52        A.  Page 19? 
    53
    54   Q.   Yes, which give the categories of grades that crew members
    55        can get, and then the rating increases are on bundle page
    56        21.  Two-thirds of the way down the page there are the
    57        rating, there is the percentage mark in the middle which is
    58        actually under increases for some reason, percentage mark
    59        being 97.5 to 100 per cent for excellent in order to get a
    60        15 pence increase; if you just look at those, the

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