Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 41


     
     1        A.  -- the Catering Review Group is a confidential, as
     2        I understand it, confidential pay club, and this
     3        information is not normally in the public domain, and it
     4        does -----
     5
     6   Q.   One question, is it authoritative?
     7        A.  It is authoritative partly because of the names of the
     8        blue chip companies that subscribe to it -- and they are
     9        all listed there -- nobody is missing from that blue chip
    10        collection of catering employers nationally, ranging from
    11        your Forte, which is the largest of the catering companies
    12        in the UK, obviously through directly comparable employers
    13        in the fast food sector, Burger King, Kentucky Fried
    14        Chicken, Pizza Hut, Pizza Direct and, of course, Whitbread
    15        with its Beefeater and so on.  These are directly
    16        comparable -- these organisations have directly comparable
    17        operations and these wages rates are directly relevant to
    18        the McDonald's labour market, if you like.
    19
    20        So, the Catering Review Group is a pay club, and there is
    21        this information exchange between these organisations on a
    22        confidential basis, I have always understood, so that each
    23        may be more intelligent about the general level of pay in
    24        the market and, indeed, the statistics -----
    25
    26   Q.   Just -----
    27        A.  I am sorry?
    28
    29   Q.   Sorry, I think we have the general view on that, but what
    30        is your conclusion from casting your eye over these
    31        statistics in this document?  We have gone through it in
    32        full in some detail?
    33        A.  That McDonald's basic rates are at or below the lower
    34        quartile of the market, LQ in the tables.  Lower quartile,
    35        in other words, lowest one quarter.  It is the figure at
    36        which 25 per cent or below of workers are -- employees are
    37        paid.  So, your lower quartile figure of all areas, table
    38        1.1, is £3.30 per hour, that is the all areas table, for a
    39        general sales assistant.  It is not the median which is the
    40        mid-point in a range; it is the lower quartile, that is,
    41        the lowest quarter, is £3.30.
    42
    43        Now, I was surprised by these figures because I was under
    44        the impression from my work in the T&G that McDonald's was
    45        actually in the middle of the front rather than down the
    46        tail end of pay.
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Which one are you looking at?
    49        A.  I am looking at page 8, table 1.1.  Table 1.1, the top
    50        table is the all areas.  This is the national summary 
    51        figure of the entire sample. 
    52 
    53   Q.   But you are taking general sales assistant, are you?
    54        A.  Just as an example, yes.  It is the highest of the
    55        lower quartile figures at £3.30 an hour.  So, the lower
    56        quartile, general sales assistant, on the national sample
    57        of all those, is it, 12 premium catering bodies, is £3.30
    58        an hour, and the regular McDonald's basic rate is £3.30.
    59
    60   MR. MORRIS:  For Inner London?

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