Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 15
1 industry.
2
3 Q. It accords with your views, does it?
4 A. It accords very much with my views. I would like to
5 confirm, if I may, the statement in his paragraph 6 which I
6 have just obtained, concerning the success, the hundreds of
7 catering employees, catering workers, whose employers would
8 not recognise a trade union and, therefore, the high
9 turnover in the industry was reflected, if you like, in the
10 high membership turnover within the trade union as a result
11 because of that resistance.
12
13 Q. Right. What is your view on people's right to join a trade
14 union?
15 A. I think it is a basic -----
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Where are we going now?
18
19 MR. RAMPTON: I doubt this is really a matter for an expert
20 witness, I really do. If it is a matter for anybody, it is
21 for the almighty or legislature which has already dealt
22 with it.
23
24 MR. MORRIS: Do you have any view about the obligations of
25 employers with regard to unions?
26 A. My view on this issue is that it is a statutory right,
27 an entitlement, to belong to a member of a trade union in
28 this country, and I think that sets, if you like, a minimal
29 position. But in terms of what I believe is an appropriate
30 expression of this issue, in my view -- I am bound to say
31 this, given my own work background and the characteristics
32 of the areas of interest I have indicated earlier -- I am
33 bound to say I do believe it is a basic right, and it is a
34 right which should be respected.
35
36 In my own experience in the hotel and catering industry
37 (which is why I am here) I believe there are concerns over
38 just how far that right is respected within the catering
39 industry generally, and certainly within the sector which
40 is under more intense examination today.
41
42 Q. Do you have any view on a company which in its Crew
43 Handbook says -- you have mentioned the Crew Handbook;
44 maybe you should go to a copy of it. I am not 100 per cent
45 sure where exactly it is. Pink volume II -- it will be a
46 green 11 in a pink file. If you open the first tab in that
47 file, you did refer to a couple of points in the Crew
48 Handbook ---
49 A. Yes.
50
51 Q. -- which, we have heard, was given to every staff member;
52 I cannot find all the references actually -- if you look at
53 the first tab, page 31, what would you say about the
54 statement that it is a disciplinary offence or an example
55 of misconduct posting, defacing or removing notices on
56 bulletin boards without authorisation? How would that
57 affect crews? Let me just read out all the ones and see if
58 we can get a general -----
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I really do wonder where we are going.
