Day 140 - 22 Jun 95 - Page 50


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think you started from the wrong premise.
     3        If you like, I will ask it for you.  But why not put what
     4        you know is a possible practical reality?  Let me try,
     5        anyway.  (To the witness)  Your franchisees are hardheaded
     6        businessmen or business women, by and large?  You do not
     7        know what "hardheaded" means?
     8        A.  No, I do not, my Lord.
     9
    10   Q.   It is not, in my terms, critical of them.  They are
    11        business people through and through.  They may have big
    12        hearts as well, but they are business people through and
    13        through.
    14        A.  I would agree with the sense, I think, my Lord is
    15        using.
    16
    17   Q.   Essentially, when you are running a business, you want to
    18        take as much as you can in sales and spend as little as you
    19        can in cost?
    20        A.  In a general sense, my Lord.  But you also want to be
    21        fair to your customers and you want to be fair to your
    22        employees.
    23
    24   Q.   I think it is really being suggested to you that you may be
    25        able to get, if you choose, crew at a lower starting rate
    26        in a relatively deprived city centre area, in a particular
    27        city which is like that, than you can in a more comfortable
    28        suburban area?
    29        A.  My Lord, if I could respond?
    30
    31   Q.   Yes.
    32        A.  We are looking for quality people, my Lord; and,
    33        without disparaging anybody in the city, often times you
    34        are competing for the best people.  You are not competing
    35        for the lowest pay that you can find; you are competing for
    36        the best people.  So you are paying at the high end for the
    37        best people; and, therefore, I am suggesting to you,
    38        my Lord, that we are not looking for the lowest pay and we
    39        are not looking to do that.  We need to find the best
    40        people; and the best people sometimes in the city are in as
    41        short supply as there might be short supply elsewhere.  So
    42        that is not a fair assessment.
    43
    44   MS. STEEL:  It would be fair to say that out in the suburbs it
    45        is harder for you to get the people you want at the rates
    46        that you might be paying in inner city areas?
    47        A.  You are going to have to rephrase that.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Try and put it another way.
    50        (To the witness)  What is being put to you is that, 
    51        nevertheless, you are likely to be able to get people of 
    52        sufficient ability and willing to work at a lower rate in a 
    53        relatively deprived city centre than in a more comfortable
    54        suburb; that is just a fact of life?
    55        A.  My Lord, to generalise in that fashion and to make wide
    56        sweeping statements in that fashion, I disagree.  First of
    57        all, my Lord, workers who may come from the inner city do
    58        work in the suburbs in the US, and suburbanites do work in
    59        the cities, and they go both ways.  So I disagree with
    60        that.

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