Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 44
1 other companies in having a large percentage of young
2 people. And, therefore, when we compare them to other
3 companies with turnover levels, say the other catering
4 companies that they are being compared very unfavourably
5 with, then other companies will also have some of the youth
6 element turnover as part of their percentage, but they are
7 not getting levels of 190 or, as it is now, 120 percent.
8 They are getting on average something like 35 percent
9 turnover. I think that deals with that document.
10
11 On page 33, line 38, he quoted from his book Twilight
12 Robbery, which he had written in 1985, in which he said 7
13 million on low wages. Most definitions of low pay agree
14 with the minimum wage target set by the TUK that no worker,
15 male or female, should earn less than two-thirds of the
16 average wage of men in manual jobs. So 7 million people
17 are on low wages by that definition. That was at that
18 time.
19
20 I am trying to cut some of this out because I think the
21 actual technicalities of the European decency threshold and
22 the TUK level are not that important.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: They sound as if they are much the same.
25
26 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Was your less than 68 percent, or whatever
29 figure you gave, was that of manual work as well?
30
31 MR. MORRIS: I think the European ----
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Your note was day 180, page 7, the Council
34 of Europe decency threshold.
35
36 MR. MORRIS: That was the one where it says about gross ----
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You said something about the Council of
39 Europe's decency threshold.
40
41 MR. MORRIS: Less than 68 percent of average earnings in any
42 affiliated country.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So that was not manual. That was just
45 average earnings.
46
47 MR. MORRIS: Yes. That is their definition of where low pay
48 starts. Then there are various ----
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So the TUC one, a few years earlier, one
51 would expect to be a lower denominator, since I think it is
52 probably fair to say, by and large, people earn less in
53 manual jobs than they do in non-manual jobs?
54
55 MR. MORRIS: Yes, that is probably true, yes. I mean, you
56 know, it does not matter, I don't think, for the purposes
57 of this case, that much. I put to him on page 35, line 20,
58 about sums it up, you have said in that paragraph, "The
59 Council of Europe's decency threshold formula is that no
60 wage should be less than 68 percent of average earnings,
