Day 182 - 02 Nov 95 - Page 22
1 I suggest you do is jot down on a bit of paper the
2 particular topics of Mr. Holm you want to take Mr. Jenssen
3 to.
4
5 (Short adjournment)
6
7 MR. MORRIS: What I am going to do is I am just going to go
8 through Mr. Holm's statement and ask you to comment. If
9 you can get his first supplementary statement? Is that
10 24?
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: 24 again.
13
14 MR. MORRIS: 24. Paragraph 4, second sentence: "It was agreed
15 with the union and with the staff that there would be union
16 organisation in the four restaurants where the 14 people
17 who wanted union organisation were employed". How does it
18 work with union recognition under the agreement that you
19 have reached?
20 A. Well, the way it works is that it is the company who
21 gets union recognition in the company and, depending on how
22 many members -- how many workers there are, well, depends
23 on how many workers there are, there will be so and so many
24 union representatives. And what it means is that in
25 addition to the law, you gain additional agreements. The
26 agreement covers many of the same aspects as the law but
27 has better, well, benefits, more -- well, the law does not
28 have -- there is no minimum wage in Norway. With an
29 agreement you will have a minimal wage, or you will have a
30 tariff which is then biannualy adjusted according to
31 negotiations and the price level.
32
33 Q. Right. Just going back to the actual recognition, the
34 structure of it: What I am saying is, do you need to get
35 union recognition at a particular store? Do you have to
36 have a percentage of union members or how does it work or
37 do you just have to have one union member?
38 A. Well, the way it works is that those that are not union
39 members, they have no say at all. So, if there is, for
40 instance, only one union member and a collective agreement,
41 then you will, in fact, be bargaining for the whole of the
42 restaurant. The ununionised workers will have to abide by
43 any decisions made by the representatives of the union.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause a moment. Yes. I think what
46 Mr. Morris was asking you, you say that union recognition
47 is not store by store, it is employer by employer, i.e. so
48 if there was one company running one store, then the
49 recognition would be at that one store. On the other hand,
50 if it was a company running four stores, the recognition
51 would be at all four stores; is that what you are saying?
52 A. Yes. Well, the thing is about franchising, the way
53 McDonald's is operated is that, and that is why, probably,
54 Theo Holm got the stores into different companies, is that
55 in a franchising system, it is only one store consists of
56 one unit.
57
58 Q. Yes, but what I have said to you is right, whether it is a
59 subsidiary company of McDonald's Norway S/A, or whether it
60 is a franchisee of that company, the union recognition is
