Day 182 - 02 Nov 95 - Page 37
1 MR. MORRIS: I have nearly finished. I am trying to finish
2 before lunch.
3
4 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, can I say something? I urge Mr. Morris
5 to finish before lunch. As matters presently stand, for
6 reasons which are perfectly obvious to your Lordship,
7 I have no cross-examination of this witness, but I do
8 desire to say some words about the procedure which has been
9 adopted now, both in relation to Norway and for the future,
10 in relation to foreign witnesses.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: (To the witness): A couple of questions. You said
13 that you are not the main union rep at your store any
14 more. Can you just explain why that came about?
15 A. Well, as I began work at Thorn EMI, it means I work
16 less and less at McDonald's. So it is better to have
17 someone who is more often there than I to be handling the
18 business, because a lot of things are going on and, if you
19 are not there, how are you supposed to deal with them?
20
21 Q. Right.
22 A. So -----
23
24 Q. So you are not there very much these days?
25 A. No. I am -----
26
27 Q. It would surprise me if you could do all those three
28 things.
29 A. Yes.
30
31 Q. There was a matter -- if I may be allowed to continue, even
32 though it is one o'clock. There was an example of disputes
33 procedure which is in the documents. You said about the
34 ventilation. Without having to translate the documents --
35 it was document D, appendix D -- just explain, without
36 referring to the document, just what happened, very
37 briefly? This was in 1994; yes?
38 A. Yes. For as long as I worked in McDonald's in
39 Slottsgt, the ventilation system has not been working
40 properly; during the summer, the temperatures can get up
41 into 35-36 degrees inside the kitchen where you work, which
42 is 10 degrees above what the labour authorities recommend;
43 and we complain about this every year, but there was not
44 done anything about it. But after we got the collective
45 agreement, the union representative, myself and my second
46 in command, or whatever, we wrote a letter to the labour
47 authorities, asking them whether or not they could come on
48 an inspection, which they did; and he stated that -- well,
49 he tried, with all this equipment, he checked the equipment
50 out, and he sent a letter to McDonald's stating that he had
51 found the system to be inadequate and it seemed to be
52 unbalanced, it did not work right, and he ordered
53 McDonald's to change the whole system by a certain date or
54 else they would be fined a bit less than £100 each day
55 until they did, which made McDonald's hurry up to get the
56 thing fixed.
57
58 Q. Right. In terms of health and safety at work, is there any
59 other development since the union agreement was signed?
60 I do not mean a dispute; I mean in terms of are there any
