Day 118 - 01 May 95 - Page 80
1 MR. RAMPTON: He is making speeches.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you know anything about other industries
4 apart from the catering industry.
5 A. That is what I am trying to say.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is why I assumed that Mr. Nicholson had
8 said as a result of his answer a moment or two ago and the
9 fact that when he when to Mr. Preston he had looked at the
10 High Street which meant shops, as I thought he probably
11 meant, at the catering industry at the Wages Council
12 minimums, but I had assumed, and, it appears,, quite
13 rightly, that he did not look at other industries. By all
14 means yourself call some evidence as to what, for instance,
15 someone in a car factory in Coventry was earning or what an
16 18 year-old starting there might earn or some other kind of
17 job, and demonstrate, if it be the case, that people in
18 McDonald's or the catering industry generally are hard done
19 by. But unfortunately Mr. Nicholson does not appear to
20 know about them.
21
22 MR. MORRIS: Just in terms of the leaflet, the mentions of low
23 pay are specifically in terms of the catering industry,
24 workers in catering do badly in terms of pay and conditions
25 and a second reference in the leaflet is that it is obvious
26 that all large chain stores and junk food giants depend on
27 their fat profits from the labour of young people. The
28 bottom of the paragraph says -----
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I understand of all of that.
31
32 MR. MORRIS: So the low is being compared to other industries
33 which are paying -----
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you pushing at an open door. Your
36 problem is that Mr. Nicholson does not know about the other
37 industries.
38
39 MR. MORRIS: I understand.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So you have to try with someone else or call
42 your own evidence in relation to that. I am not saying it
43 is not a good point, but I will have to wait to see what
44 the evidence is. Mr. Nicholson cannot help you, he says.
45 Do you want to break off there now, or do you want to ask
46 something else?
47
48 MS. STEEL: I will ask one thing. You do not know what the
49 wages are in industry in general, no. You have said in
50 your statement that you thought that the leaflet was highly
51 defamatory. How could you know whether it was defamatory
52 or not if you did not know what the wages were in the
53 industry?
54 A. I think the leaflet is highly defamatory in its
55 entirety.
56
57 Q. On that particular issue?
58 A. And on that particular issue I disagree with your
59 comment in there.
60
