Day 190 - 23 Nov 95 - Page 31


     
     1        than as an employee -----
     2
     3   MR. RAMPTON:  Absolutely.  I am not suggesting it was a fraud.
     4        But if a journalist went in under cover, as it were,
     5        pretending to be an employee and not letting on that she is
     6        a journalist, and asked questions which the Manager does
     7        have authority to answer to an employee, but without ever
     8        revealing that she means to get the information for
     9        publication, then it is doubtful, we would submit, whether
    10        the answers given could be used for the reason that the
    11        authority to give those answers has been invalidated by the
    12        true purpose for which they were sought.
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I would have to look at the substance, would
    15        I not?  One can forget any element of deception.  If it
    16        were, for instance, that even an Assistant Manager is
    17        authorised to make responses to an employee asking about
    18        their conditions at work, but not to make responses to a
    19        researcher or journalist inquiring into McDonald's
    20        practices, then even if the researcher is an employee,
    21        I have to decide whether the questions were asked not with
    22        a view to reassuring herself about the terms of her
    23        employment, but rather to further her research -- do I not?
    24
    25   MR. RAMPTON:  Well, my Lord, given what Ms. Lamb says in her
    26        statement about conducting these interviews in the course
    27        of researching into working practices at McDonald's, and
    28        given the actual substance -- I have not looked at Lynval's
    29        statement for this purpose; my copy is virtually
    30        unreadable, anyway -- but one only has to look at Mark Ryan
    31        to realise that it is obvious that Ms. Lamb was probably
    32        perfectly open and said: "Look, I am a journalist.  I would
    33        like to know a bit about how the store operates, how the
    34        business operates."  Whether she did or not, these are
    35        answers to questions which have very little to do with the
    36        actual or prospective employment conditions of an
    37        individual employee.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I thought there were just two in the
    40        interview of Mark Ryan, the first being the last sentence
    41        at the end of the third paragraph, about the basis of
    42        scheduling ---
    43
    44   MR. RAMPTON:  Interestingly -----
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  -- and the second one being in the large
    47        middle paragraph on the second page, about "at McDonald's
    48        everything is tight", and then down to "one packet of
    49        mixture".   All the other matters -----
    50 
    51   MR. RAMPTON:  This is under the heading "Managers".  She went in 
    52        as a crew member.  It is inconceivable that ----- 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  This is quite regardless of any point you
    55        have about her being a journalist, or anything else.
    56
    57   MR. RAMPTON:  No, no, I quite agree.  I have taken that point.
    58        This is about managers.  It is inconceivable that an
    59        Assistant Manager would be authorised to say these things
    60        to a crew member.  The same applies to the earlier sentence

Prev Next Index