Day 303 - 19 Nov 96 - Page 14


     
     1        the taxation side, did not have anybody dealing with
     2        overtime matters, which was staggering considering that
     3        such a large percentage worked overtime and were not
     4        getting paid for it.  Obviously, if they had someone
     5        responsible for overtime they would have had to have seen
     6        and monitored a massive breach of the law continuously
     7        throughout the whole period.
     8
     9        I think that is...  Basically, it turned out as regards the
    10        -- I am confused about this one thing.  I was going to ask
    11        Mr. Pearson when the overtime provision came in, I presume
    12        it applied.  It was the law under the wage councils for
    13        decades before the period that we have specifically been
    14        looking at, and one point she said, for example, on the top
    15        of page 35, day 259...
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    18
    19   MR. MORRIS:  "It was not my job to pass information on to
    20        Mr. Mills, it was Mr. Mills' job to come and investigate if
    21        a crew member made a complaint".  Then on page 54, she
    22        says, "Mr. Mills came to us to investigate" -- this is at
    23        line 49 -- "we did not go to him to ask him about something
    24        that perhaps a crew member had complained about because, as
    25        I have explained to you before, the procedure was for crew
    26        members unhappy about something he would go to his
    27        immediate superior who would then put it right".  So, it
    28        seems contradictory to me.
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Surely, all that is coming out of it was that
    31        McDonald's, she was saying McDonald's, did, at least they
    32        should have, investigate any complaints which were made to
    33        them by employees, but they do not then say to the
    34        Inspectorate "We have had a complaint from one of our
    35        employees, would you like to look into it", but if a
    36        complaint is made to the authorities by an employee of
    37        McDonald's then Mr. Mills or someone like him might come
    38        along and look into it.  But was there any more than that
    39        to it?
    40
    41   MR. MORRIS:  I do not know how much weight, if any, is going to
    42        be given to this.  I actually made substantial notes on it
    43        because if this is going to be given any weight at all,
    44        which I say it should not be, then it needs to be read
    45        carefully, and all the contradictions and inadequacies --
    46        I am not criticising Denise Pearce, specifically, but ----
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What you say is that the statutory
    49        provisions, if I look at them, and I will have to see
    50        whether I do or not -----
    51
    52   MR. MORRIS:  For example she-----
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just listen a minute.  Mean that you actually
    55        have to pay time and a half, or whatever, you do not abide
    56        by them, if at the end of the day the wages which were paid
    57        come to at least the sum of the minimum at all the rates,
    58        basic time and a half and everything else, McDonald's
    59        argue, and I will have to see what Mr. Rampton puts before
    60        me, that that is wrong provided you end up at the end of

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