Day 134 - 13 Jun 95 - Page 76
1 which is an historical account of the crew's salary
2 increases from 1983 to 1992 in tabular form. Do you see
3 that?
4 A. Yes.
5
6 Q. Just for the sake of example, look at "provincial" which is
7 the bottom table, please?
8 A. Yes.
9
10 Q. Start in June 1988. What I want you to notice is the
11 following. I will do them laterally, if I may,
12 horizontally. For all three periods with all three shifts
13 in 1988 there was uniform increase of 10p over the previous
14 year I think; is that right?
15 A. Yes.
16
17 Q. The next year however they varied. The day shift got an
18 increase of 18p, the evening shift an increase of 13p and
19 the night shift an increase of only 8p?
20 A. Yes.
21
22 Q. Next year, 1990, the day shift got 22p on the previous
23 year, evening shift got 27p on the previous year and so did
24 the night shift. The next year, 1991, was when the maximum
25 rate I think was introduced and at any rate when the
26 premium shift and the evening shift got the same, and there
27 was, as Ms. Steel pointed out to you, a rise of 30p each
28 for the day and the evening shifts and 10p for the premium
29 shift to bring it up to the same as the evening shift.
30 What I wonder is whether you can explain how it is for
31 those years 1989 to 1991 those rises are, if I may put it
32 like this, so chaotic. That is how it looks to the
33 untutored eye?
34 A. At this point I think I would only be probably
35 hazarding guesses. I do not know whether Mr. Nicholson
36 gave evidence on this, but I think they would have been
37 dealing with keeping, if I remember how the tables would
38 look, the relationships between the bands and the different
39 positions. That would have been why the increases will be
40 have been applied in particular ways in relation to the
41 Wages Council increase. Yes, it is coming to me now. I am
42 sorry, I am getting to point where I am tired. It is to do
43 with the Wages Council awarded and it would be applying it
44 then across. I am sure that is how it was done, so
45 applying that percentage across and that would be why you
46 would have different rates resulting.
47
48 Q. I see. One final question then on this question of an
49 apparent flattening out of the entitlement of the people
50 who do the night shift. I think you said not many people
51 actually do work, never did work, and still do not work
52 that premium shift. Have you any idea, roughly speaking,
53 what proportion it is of the workforce that does that night
54 shift from 11 in the evening until 7 in the morning? Take a
55 restaurant of say 50 crew members, how many people on
56 average would be doing the night shift assuming it is not
57 one of those few restaurants that remain open to the public
58 all night long?
59 A. I was going to say about 5 per cent and that would
60 therefore be about 2 or 3 people, would it not?
