Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 15


     
     1        industry.
     2
     3   Q.   It accords with your views, does it?
     4        A.  It accords very much with my views.  I would like to
     5        confirm, if I may, the statement in his paragraph 6 which I
     6        have just obtained, concerning the success, the hundreds of
     7        catering employees, catering workers, whose employers would
     8        not recognise a trade union and, therefore, the high
     9        turnover in the industry was reflected, if you like, in the
    10        high membership turnover within the trade union as a result
    11        because of that resistance.
    12
    13   Q.   Right.  What is your view on people's right to join a trade
    14        union?
    15        A.  I think it is a basic -----
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Where are we going now?
    18
    19   MR. RAMPTON:  I doubt this is really a matter for an expert
    20        witness, I really do.  If it is a matter for anybody, it is
    21        for the almighty or legislature which has already dealt
    22        with it.
    23
    24   MR. MORRIS:  Do you have any view about the obligations of
    25        employers with regard to unions?
    26        A.  My view on this issue is that it is a statutory right,
    27        an entitlement, to belong to a member of a trade union in
    28        this country, and I think that sets, if you like, a minimal
    29        position.  But in terms of what I believe is an appropriate
    30        expression of this issue, in my view -- I am bound to say
    31        this, given my own work background and the characteristics
    32        of the areas of interest I have indicated earlier -- I am
    33        bound to say I do believe it is a basic right, and it is a
    34        right which should be respected.
    35
    36        In my own experience in the hotel and catering industry
    37        (which is why I am here) I believe there are concerns over
    38        just how far that right is respected within the catering
    39        industry generally, and certainly within the sector which
    40        is under more intense examination today.
    41
    42   Q.   Do you have any view on a company which in its Crew
    43        Handbook says -- you have mentioned the Crew Handbook;
    44        maybe you should go to a copy of it.  I am not 100 per cent
    45        sure where exactly it is.  Pink volume II -- it will be a
    46        green 11 in a pink file.  If you open the first tab in that
    47        file, you did refer to a couple of points in the Crew
    48        Handbook ---
    49        A.  Yes.
    50 
    51   Q.   -- which, we have heard, was given to every staff member; 
    52        I cannot find all the references actually -- if you look at 
    53        the first tab, page 31, what would you say about the
    54        statement that it is a disciplinary offence or an example
    55        of misconduct posting, defacing or removing notices on
    56        bulletin boards without authorisation?  How would that
    57        affect crews?  Let me just read out all the ones and see if
    58        we can get a general -----
    59
    60   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I really do wonder where we are going.

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