Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 40
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. How is that relevant?
2
3 THE WITNESS: Well -----
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not interested in political matters of
6 that kind. I just want to know whether people who work for
7 McDonald's can be said to be low paid or not.
8
9 MR. MORRIS: If they get State benefits of Family Credit and
10 housing benefit on top of their low wages, the State is
11 effectively subsidising the employer.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is not of any interest to me, so far as
14 this leaflet is concerned. If the leaflet had said the
15 state subsidises McDonald's, it might have been a different
16 matter.
17
18 THE WITNESS: And so what I have tried to show on page 18 of the
19 book were exactly the kind of cross-industry comparisons
20 which I was asked about just a moment ago where -----
21
22 MR. MORRIS: We have not got page 18. If you just give us your
23 opinion?
24 A. OK. There is plenty of evidence to show that by
25 occupation, in a way you have the New Earnings Survey able
26 to show earnings by occupation, the catering, the classic
27 catering, jobs of waiting, chef, bar staff and so forth,
28 they appear among the lowest 10 male occupations by pay,
29 and the same catering jobs appear among the lowest female
30 occupations by pay. That was true in 1983 when I looked at
31 the figures first and it is true in 1985.
32
33 Q. 1995?
34 A. 95. The low pay league, as I called it, the jobs are
35 still down the bottom, the same jobs are still down the
36 bottom of the league.
37
38 Q. If we come onto the Catering Review Group, it is actually a
39 document entitled G2. I am not sure, I think this might
40 have been behind Lynn Mead's statement as well. It is the
41 one entitled "External survey of hourly rates". Have you
42 got Lynn Mead there? I presume it is behind her, if
43 someone can help me on that? It is G2.
44 A. Yes.
45
46 Q. If the court can help me, I believe this document is all
47 based on the Catering Review Group which, if you look on
48 the back page, talks about the survey sample. "The survey
49 is compiled by the Catering Review Group comprising of the
50 following organisations". Can you just give us a view of
51 what the Catering Review Group is?
52 A. Yes, the Catering Review Group referred to on page 12
53 of the document, this is, well, this is a pay club, this is
54 premium information. In fact, I would describe it as gold
55 dust actually in terms of pay intelligence. The Pay Review
56 Group, in fact, I was amazed to see this information here
57 -- amazed because the Pay Review Group -- the Catering
58 -----
59
60 Q. The Catering Review Group.
