Day 152 - 11 Jul 95 - Page 61


     
     1        instance, you know, somebody might say:  "Well, last week
     2        I had three closes and I felt probably I only should have
     3        been scheduled for two", or on pay maybe:  "I would like to
     4        check through the payroll just to check that last week
     5        I was given the correct pay".  That would be an individual
     6        person maybe.  So generally they were very happy.
     7
     8   Q.   I was driving at something a little bit more sour than
     9        that, Mr. Davis.  How often, if ever, did you hear somebody
    10        say something to this effect:  "I think that the wages this
    11        Company pays for the work that we do stink; they are rock
    12        bottom and they are over working us"?
    13        A.  Nobody has ever said that to me in a rap session.
    14
    15   Q.   Mr. Morris seems to think that was funny.  Were you
    16        intending a joke?
    17        A.  No.
    18
    19   Q.   That is the truth, is it?
    20        A.  Yes.
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Did you ever have someone say:  "I have a
    23        friend who is", and then give a similar kind of work
    24        perhaps in the area or in another kind of restaurant or a
    25        shop, "and they are getting a bit more than I am", or
    26        something like that?
    27        A.  Not generally because, generally, the type of work that
    28        we are dealing with in catering and retailing, we were
    29        competitive with the local rates.  On top of that not many
    30        of the other retailing establishments offered things like
    31        performance reviews as an ongoing thing within the
    32        restaurant.  Somebody might have said, you know, it is out
    33        of town -- one does actually stick out in my mind in that
    34        nature is Bury St. Edmunds there is a sugar-beet factory
    35        that paid about œ4 an hour during the summer months.
    36        I seem to remember that coming up in a rap session once,
    37        which was more than the rate we were paying at the time;
    38        the difference being that the sugar-beet factory was a
    39        seasonal operation.  Basically, if you went to work for
    40        them, it was like a six months contract.  That is one of
    41        the instances which you were referring to, I suppose, could
    42        be an example.
    43
    44   MR. RAMPTON:  Mr. Davis, the Defendants will not believe
    45        anything you have said and they will suggest to you that
    46        the reason why either that you are lying or the reason why
    47        nobody ever complained about the hours or the pay is they
    48        were all scared rigid that they would be sacked if they
    49        uttered a word of complaint about the system or about the
    50        management? 
    51        A.  Right. 
    52 
    53   Q.   Tell us a bit about the atmosphere at these rap sessions.
    54        Are there a lot of cowered, sheepish employees hardly
    55        daring to speak, or not?
    56        A.  It varied a lot from restaurant to restaurant.  In some
    57        cases they could be quite volatile and noisy, and there may
    58        be a couple of individuals who are trying to sort of voice
    59        all their opinions and not let everybody else have a say.
    60        But my view in general of rap sessions is that nobody is

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