Day 119 - 02 May 95 - Page 60


     
     1        admissible or falls foul of the hearsay rule, it will in
     2        fact be brought in by McDonald's themselves when they put
     3        forward that positive evidence.
     4
     5        Of course, you will say:  "Well, what is the basis for your
     6        information as to why people leave?"  In order to justify
     7        her evidence that it is because it is the end of school
     8        term, or something of that kind, or going back to
     9        university at the beginning of October, or whatever it is,
    10        they will have to produce some kind of survey to show this,
    11        and the same survey should show other reasons as well.  I
    12        mean, this is pure speculation, I just do not know.
    13
    14        But at the moment you have Mr. Nicholson in the witness box
    15        who is not even sure whether there was any compilation of
    16        these statistics.  He says there certainly was, he thinks,
    17        with regard to salaried staff.  You are more interested in
    18        crew, in fact; that is not to say you are not interested in
    19        salaried staff, but you are more interested in crew.
    20
    21        At the moment I see a great potential for it being hearsay
    22        and, therefore, under our rules not admissible unless you
    23        can put it within an exception to the hearsay rule.  A lot
    24        of modern judges do not have a great deal of time for the
    25        hearsay rule, but it is there and it has to be observed.
    26
    27   MR. MORRIS:  Maybe I will put it as a question to Mr. Nicholson.
    28          (To the witness):  Have you that document in front of
    29        you?
    30        A.  Which document?
    31
    32   MR. MORRIS:  It is the Operations and Training Manual which I am
    33        sure you are familiar with.
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Judge Devine in the Slough County Court
    36        always used to say that the hearsay rule had no effect in
    37        his court, but I am not brave as he was.
    38
    39   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I am not fond of the hearsay rule either
    40        if it does not have any affect upon the use of the court's
    41        time and the progress of this cross-examination.  For
    42        Mr. Nicholson to speculate what might be the most common
    43        reasons that people give for leaving would not, in my
    44        respectful submission, be a useful use of your Lordship's
    45        time.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I will come back to deciding if there is a
    48        formal argument.  What you are really saying at the moment
    49        is when Mrs. Mead -- if that is her proper title -- comes
    50        into the witness, if she is going to say:  "There is 
    51        turnover for all these innocent reasons", you want the 
    52        documentation which, for all I know, maybe in the papers 
    53        somewhere to support it, and by that method, if no other,
    54        you may get the information you are looking for now.
    55
    56   MR. MORRIS:  If I ask the question to Mr. Nicholson.
    57        (To the witness):  Have you got page 87?
    58        A.  Yes.
    59
    60   Q.   Under "Retention of Crew"?

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