Day 174 - 17 Oct 95 - Page 58
1 to talk to him then, whoever it is -- "but I would like
2 half an hour before I call him", I will not be unreceptive
3 to that. But what I do not want you doing, and what you
4 must not do, is so organise your witness timetable that as
5 a matter of course you get half a day here and a day there
6 to use as preparation days.
7
8 We will adjourn now. I will not go into any of the reading
9 witnesses because if, in fact, Mr. North is here I think it
10 is in everyone's interest if you get on talking with him,
11 but we will have Mr. Whittle tomorrow. If he finishes a
12 little early we will go on to some reading. So be ready to
13 respond to what Mr. Rampton was saying -- is it Mr. McGee
14 or Mr. Magill?
15
16 MR. RAMPTON: McGee, my Lord.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Mr. McGee.
19
20 MR. RAMPTON: Magill was the first one.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. When we come back to get on with
23 Mr. Turnbull on the 19th, I would like you to tell me who
24 you propose to call on two days of Wednesday, Thursday and
25 Friday of the half term week and what the state of play is
26 with organising people then. When Mr. Turnbull is here, he
27 may be able to give you -- you may find, if you have some
28 additional query, that he will say, "You had better ask
29 Mr. Pearson about that rather than me". So take the
30 opportunity while Mr. Turnbull is here to find out; you can
31 try any queries you have in mind for Mr. Pearson or
32 Mr. Turnbull, I would have thought.
33
34 MR. MORRIS: Our approach is, fundamentally, that we have called
35 witnesses to help the court on what the truth of the
36 situation is regarding McDonald's employment conditions and
37 that, fundamentally, should be the thing that guides what
38 happens, and that if people have evidence to give they
39 should be encouraged to give that by the court, and we are
40 doing our best in all the circumstances to ensure that as
41 much advance warning is given to the Plaintiffs, but that
42 if anybody -- if you, yourself, feel there are questions
43 you want to ask our witnesses we would only welcome that
44 because they have a lot of experience.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If I can helpfully ask anything I will, but
47 what I want you to be doing at the moment is packing your
48 witnesses in to this so I know where we are.
49
50 MR. MORRIS: You see, I just want to say that we cannot afford
51 to schedule someone on a day when they then do not get
52 heard because we cannot afford to bring people in that we
53 cannot pay for loss of wages or pay double fares, or
54 whatever. So we have to try and make sure that the
55 scheduling is reasonable and that if we have gaps, you
56 know, because someone finishes early we feel, and I know it
57 is your decision, but we feel that is better than
58 scheduling someone who does not get heard.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you can still pack them in reasonably
