Day 122 - 05 May 95 - Page 40
1 is that you think is appropriate?
2 A. Well, I am saying the industry.
3
4 Q. Yes, but the catering industry is much wider.
5 A. Yes, I can mention some of them.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can you remember now?
8 A. Yes, the restaurants I checked?
9
10 Q. Yes.
11 A. Yes. I compared with Pizza Hut, Burger King, Wimpey.
12 At that time there were chains called Wendies, Little
13 Eater, Happy Eater, Little Chef, so they were the
14 restaurants I checked against.
15
16 MS. STEEL: So you did not go to -----
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is your answer, is it not? They are
19 all -----
20 A. The main High Street operators.
21
22 MS. STEEL: Can we break now?
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, certainly. 2 o'clock.
25
26 (Luncheon Adjournment)
27
28 MS. STEEL: So, Mr. Nicholson, you only check the wages in the
29 restaurant chains?
30 A. No. No, I did not say that. You asked which people in
31 the industry I checked.
32
33 Q. Right, within the industry, it was only the restaurant
34 chains that you checked?
35 A. Generally speaking, yes.
36
37 Q. Right, so you do not in fact know what the wages are across
38 the catering industry; they could be higher, much higher
39 than in the chains in the catering industry?
40 A. I would be surprised. The odd individual restaurant
41 may have conditions higher than is normal, but I would have
42 thought most restaurants of -- we are all fishing in the
43 some pond, so I would have thought our conditions of
44 service were fairly general and ours were to the better
45 end, considerably to the better end, of the industry as
46 I knew it.
47
48 Q. Are you suggesting that all the other restaurants chains
49 were illegally paying below the minimum wage?
50 A. No. Their total package, in my opinion, did not meet
51 ours.
52
53 Q. In the catering industry, in general, outside of chains, by
54 and large it is standard practice for the workers to be
55 able to keep tips which are provided by customers, is it
56 not?
57 A. I do not know. We disapprove of tipping in our
58 restaurants.
59
60 Q. Yes, so in your restaurants the workers cannot supplement
