Day 181 - 01 Nov 95 - Page 27


     
     1        industry of seasonality, and it does mean that at certain
     2        periods of the year part-time employees who thought they
     3        were there for, say, a four day or three day perhaps 20
     4        hours week, they might then be asked and persuaded to do
     5        significantly more over, say, Christmas.  Now, for them,
     6        that is, effectively, more than they wanted.  It is,
     7        effectively, part-time, and there are companies, there are
     8        employers, in this industry who provide a premium incentive
     9        to even part-time staff to encourage them to work those
    10        additional hours.
    11
    12        So, you know, that is why I feel that the
    13        part-time/full-time question is -- it needs a condition
    14        about the industry built into it really; it is just
    15        I thought I should say that.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  I think, Mr. Rampton, when you speak
    18        about overtime you are using it in the sense everyone in
    19        this case has used it so far which is more than 30 hours,
    20        over 39 hours?
    21        A.  39.
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is right, is it not?  That is the sense?
    24
    25   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, indeed, it is.  My Lord, I said, I think,
    26        when I broached this topic that I entirely accept there may
    27        be occasions when part-timers actually do more than 39
    28        hours in busy periods.  I did not suggest that it was an
    29        invariable rule that it was only full-timers.
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.  I think all Mr. Pearson is explaining
    32        his hesitation with agreeing with your, when he understood
    33        it, common sense suggestion.  His hesitation was that by
    34        his interpretation of overtime an awful lot of part-timers
    35        work overtime, i.e. more than they normally work in a given
    36        week.
    37
    38   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I am perfectly happy with that.  I am
    39        interested in people who work more than 39 hours a week, as
    40        happens.  (To the witness):  Perhaps we can stick with
    41        them, Mr. Pearson?  According to these figures, it is a
    42        small percentage of the workforce that works more than 39
    43        hours a week, is it not?
    44        A.  Yes, it is.
    45
    46   Q.   Yes.
    47        A.  And it is also interesting how much the number of
    48        employees varies over the seasons.  I mean, if you look at
    49        the aggregate columns available in this data, you have
    50        28,600 employees at the end of the quarter of which you 
    51        have asked about, yet in the quarter of 31st March you have 
    52        got over 2,000, about 2,000 more, and this obviously is a 
    53        seasonal factor.
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We have no problem about that.  If I might
    56        suggest, stick to answering the questions which are put to
    57        you.  If you then have an elaboration on your answer, by
    58        all means put it because I appreciate that a pure "yes" or
    59        a pure "no" can be very misleading, but I would invite you
    60        to try to resist going on to another point on something

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