Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 53


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If I may say so, if, at the end of the day,
     2        I disbelieved Mr. Coton that Mr. Skehel said he had been
     3        doing it himself, that would not mean that I discard all
     4        Mr. Coton's evidence, because one does not have to be in
     5        these courts for very long to realise that witnesses can be
     6        accurate about one thing and inaccurate about another.  It
     7        is not all black or all white, necessarily.
     8
     9   MR. MORRIS (To the witness):  You said that you heard about this
    10         -- this is a rap session, is that correct, or you think
    11         -----
    12        A.  No, I have said I think I may have heard about it at
    13        the rap session.  I may not have heard about it at the rap
    14        session.  I may have heard it from a crew member on another
    15        occasion.
    16
    17   Q.   If crew members at a rap session say they do not believe
    18        they are getting paid for the hours that they worked, would
    19        that be an indication that this kind of practice might be
    20        going on?
    21        A.  If a crew member said at a rap session that they had
    22        not been paid for the hours that they had worked, I would
    23        ask them for some more questions, such as, when did you
    24        work?  You know, what do you have to sort of support your
    25        point of view?  But, to be honest with you, that is not
    26        something that you would deal with in the rap session.  You
    27        would deal with that outside of the rap session.
    28
    29        If the crew said at the rap session:  "We are not being
    30        paid for the hours we are working" and several crew said
    31        it.  I would say:  "Why do you think that is the case?" and
    32        then they would probably tell me why they thought it was
    33        the case.
    34
    35   Q.   Does this view by crew members, they are not being paid for
    36        all the hours they have worked, is that something that
    37        comes up quite a lot?
    38        A.  Sorry, on -- when?
    39
    40   Q.   Is that something that comes up quite a lot, that kind of
    41        view, that the workers at McDonald's say or believe that
    42        they are not being paid for all the hours that they have
    43        worked, or is that something that was so unusual that you
    44        felt you had to make an investigation?
    45        A.  No.  I think you have not got me straight here.
    46        I think it is likely that a crew member had said to me:
    47         "Hours have been docked from my pay", which is a serious
    48        allegation which requires a serious conversation and would
    49        not be dealt with within a rap session.
    50 
    51        As to your first question, no, I do not believe it is 
    52        something which crops up at rap sessions, that particular 
    53        point about docking hours frequently.  However, I think
    54        that at every rap session, as the specific purpose of the
    55        rap session is to address many issues, amongst those, if
    56        the administration of payroll is to the satisfaction of the
    57        crew, then it will come up and feature on every rap session
    58        as being either good, or if there are some problems with
    59        it.
    60

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