Day 303 - 19 Nov 96 - Page 07
1 that he described as valid trade union activities, which,
2 of course, are protected in that Employment Protection Act,
3 so it is his expert view, as a member of the wage council
4 and an expert in this field, that McDonald's is prescribing
5 activities which are specifically protected under the law
6 and they are prescribing them in their Crew Handbook for
7 all their employees.
8
9 He said that the practise of employers trying to circumvent
10 overtime laws - this is at the top of page 54 - and
11 procedures, that the way the wage council inspector would
12 deal with them, although they obviously have got strong
13 powers, is they would not rush to court if they found out
14 about these kind of things, employers would be cautioned.
15
16 The number of prosecutions nationally, and do not forget we
17 are talking about 400,000 workplaces, I think that is in
18 the south-east, was in single figures. Generally, firms
19 will be reminded of the obligation to actually calculate it
20 properly, he said, and not 'busk it', which means to play
21 fast and loose with the law in the hope they might get
22 there in a certain percentage of cases or all cases, which
23 of course McDonald's cannot do because of the discrepancy.
24
25 I tried to contact Mr. Pearson last night to have a
26 discussion about some of these things but I could not get
27 hold of him.
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have to rely on the evidence.
30
31 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I think the evidence is pretty clear on what
32 the law is and what McDonald's practice is, so.... You did
33 say yourself actually it is a matter of law which you have
34 to decide. That is what you said on page 54.
35
36 He did say that McDonald's written policy of not permitting
37 crew members to work more than 39 hours per week, which it
38 stated in the 1986 Crew Handbook internal page 41, he said
39 on page 55 of his testimony on day 181 that that would be
40 just the thing which would be taken -- like to be taken at
41 face value as a definitive statement.
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What, by the inspectors?
44
45 MR. MORRIS: By the inspector. I said: "Would that be the kind
46 of thing that would be very likely to be taken at face
47 value as the definitive statement?" And do not forget we
48 saw the memo from Sid Nicholson saying exactly the same
49 thing as well. He answered: "Yes; not by any company, not
50 by your small business, your cafe; the record would
51 probably need to be examined. But for a significant
52 national employer with organised personnel practices....on
53 the face of it, this was precisely the kind of
54 documentation that would be required to
55 support....McDonald's in this case."
56
57 And then he quotes that what I just quoted. And yet, as it
58 turns out, and he says: "A very substantial percentage are
59 working overtime each week". This, of course, is a
60 question from Mr. Rampton -- no, it is re-examination
