Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 56


     
     1
     2   Q.   I understand that.
     3        A.  -- and all that stuff.  It was a big issue for the
     4        industry.
     5
     6   Q.   Yes.
     7
     8   MS. STEEL:   Not on overtime, but if you could just turn to
     9        document 29 in this bundle, the third page of that which is
    10        bundle page 672, which is the crew salary history from 1983
    11        to 1992.  June 1992 was the last year that a rate was set
    12        by the Wages Council, yes?
    13        A.  Yes.
    14
    15   Q.   We have heard from a recent witness that the rate of pay,
    16        the provincial rate of pay, starting rate of pay at
    17        McDonald's is now £3.05 which, if you look at the last
    18        table on this page, is a five pence increase in a three
    19        year period.  Also, if you look at the first chart, the
    20        last rate of pay for June 1992 for Inner London is £3.30,
    21        and I believe it is now £3.40.  What would a five or 10
    22        pence increase in pay in three years suggest to you?
    23        A.  A departure from past practice, in that for every year
    24        since the early 70s the Wages Council minimum rate had
    25        always kept pace with inflation.  A 5p rise over that three
    26        year period would amount to approximately a two per cent
    27        increase in a period when inflation -----
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I may not have followed everything Ms. Steel
    30        put, but I think she said five or 10p, but the figures she
    31        put were 3.30 then and 3.40 now.
    32
    33   THE WITNESS:  Yes.
    34
    35   MS. STEEL:  That was the one for Inner London, the provincial
    36        one was the five pence increase, from £3.00 to £3.05 in
    37        three years.  Both of them are in three years.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am sorry.  What are you looking at for the
    40        5p increase?
    41
    42   MS. STEEL:   The last chart on the page which is headed
    43        "Provincial", the bottom line, June 1992, the starting
    44        rate is £3.00, and it is now £3.05.  I think it was
    45        Mr. Richards who said that.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let me just make a note.
    48
    49   THE WITNESS:  My comment is not only that that is a departure
    50        from what was the practice until abolition of inflation 
    51        proofing, a minimum wage has not happened now, so ..... 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You mean before August 1993?
    54        A.  Yes.  Inflation proofing was a sine qua nom of the
    55        system, otherwise what was the point of it?  And the pay
    56        history in the last three years, in effect, in round terms,
    57        you have got one pay rise instead of three, 5p when you
    58        could have expected 15, something like that.
    59
    60   MS. STEEL:   Right.

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