Day 173 - 16 Oct 95 - Page 45
1 suggestion of mine, that he was keeping his head down by
2 not replying, and he says that -- these were not his words
3 -- he did not want the union involved because he did not
4 want to lose control of his business. You can ask him a
5 question or two about that if you want.
6
7 MS. STEEL: I mean, there are other issues particularly
8 concerning pay, because there is -----
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not trying to deter you for a moment
11 from going to what I saw as the three issues over Dublin
12 which you say may help me with regards to other aspects of
13 the case: that is, hostility to unions, sacking or other
14 forms of discrimination against union members, and low
15 pay.
16
17 What I do not think -- just listen for a moment and then
18 all by all means talk to Mr. Morris, and sit down and do it
19 for a moment or two if you want -- what I am wondering is
20 whether going into the detailed history really advances the
21 matter there.
22
23 MS. STEEL: I will try not to go into all of it, but there are
24 specific parts that I do want to bring up.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do bear that in mind.
27
28 MS. STEEL: OK. (To the witness) Following your distribution
29 of the employee booklets, the crew were invited to ask
30 questions; and you have got recorded there that the main
31 questions included payroll errors, the policy on sick pay,
32 the crew room being too crowded and the heating in the crew
33 room being turned off. So you would accept that there was
34 some discontent there?
35 A. I would accept that there was some errors, payroll
36 errors. You know, at this stage I cannot recall exactly
37 what these errors were. The crew room too crowded -- from
38 memory, I do not understand why 15 people would be taking a
39 break at one time; that surprised me to read it. But the
40 crew room heating had been turned off -- I do not
41 understand the heating being turned off, if it ever was.
42 I think it is simply put down as a comment by a crew
43 person.
44
45 Q. But they were expressing that they were not happy about
46 something; they were expressing discontent about something?
47 A. They were certainly expressing those points right
48 there.
49
50 Q. Following that, you asked -- well, I will just read it
51 briefly.
52
53 "I invited any crew members who wished to talk about
54 McDonald's policies or Company direction to come to talk to
55 me on a personal basis after the meeting. The people who
56 approached me were Sean Mosrek, who complained about rates
57 of pay. He had previously been making £58 per week as a
58 laboratory assistant."
59
60 Do you recollect that?
