Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 56
1
2 Q. I understand that.
3 A. -- and all that stuff. It was a big issue for the
4 industry.
5
6 Q. Yes.
7
8 MS. STEEL: Not on overtime, but if you could just turn to
9 document 29 in this bundle, the third page of that which is
10 bundle page 672, which is the crew salary history from 1983
11 to 1992. June 1992 was the last year that a rate was set
12 by the Wages Council, yes?
13 A. Yes.
14
15 Q. We have heard from a recent witness that the rate of pay,
16 the provincial rate of pay, starting rate of pay at
17 McDonald's is now £3.05 which, if you look at the last
18 table on this page, is a five pence increase in a three
19 year period. Also, if you look at the first chart, the
20 last rate of pay for June 1992 for Inner London is £3.30,
21 and I believe it is now £3.40. What would a five or 10
22 pence increase in pay in three years suggest to you?
23 A. A departure from past practice, in that for every year
24 since the early 70s the Wages Council minimum rate had
25 always kept pace with inflation. A 5p rise over that three
26 year period would amount to approximately a two per cent
27 increase in a period when inflation -----
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I may not have followed everything Ms. Steel
30 put, but I think she said five or 10p, but the figures she
31 put were 3.30 then and 3.40 now.
32
33 THE WITNESS: Yes.
34
35 MS. STEEL: That was the one for Inner London, the provincial
36 one was the five pence increase, from £3.00 to £3.05 in
37 three years. Both of them are in three years.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am sorry. What are you looking at for the
40 5p increase?
41
42 MS. STEEL: The last chart on the page which is headed
43 "Provincial", the bottom line, June 1992, the starting
44 rate is £3.00, and it is now £3.05. I think it was
45 Mr. Richards who said that.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let me just make a note.
48
49 THE WITNESS: My comment is not only that that is a departure
50 from what was the practice until abolition of inflation
51 proofing, a minimum wage has not happened now, so .....
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You mean before August 1993?
54 A. Yes. Inflation proofing was a sine qua nom of the
55 system, otherwise what was the point of it? And the pay
56 history in the last three years, in effect, in round terms,
57 you have got one pay rise instead of three, 5p when you
58 could have expected 15, something like that.
59
60 MS. STEEL: Right.
