Day 120 - 03 May 95 - Page 16
1 Mr. Nicholson is in the box -- I know he has not, all he
2 has said is he was told Mr. Sutcliffe was there but he did
3 not take names -- you had better put to him whether it is
4 your case that he was there.
5
6 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, if he was there, we should need to know
7 because it is not in his statement.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I know. We can come to that later. That
10 does not concern Mr. Nicholson's evidence itself.
11
12 MS. STEEL: I think the position is we are not sure at the
13 moment. I think we will need to contact Mr. Sutcliffe.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will leave it there for the moment.
16 Before you move across the country a bit, you said, in
17 answer to Mr. Morris, words to the effect that the attitude
18 to unions was not because the union would be more effective
19 in negotiating about pay and conditions of work?
20 A. My feeling was there were one or two people at both
21 meetings who simply wanted to be represented.
22
23 Q. However that may be, McDonald's had no-one to negotiate
24 with under the system which prevailed about conditions ---
25 A. No.
26
27 Q. -- or pay, did they?
28 A. No.
29
30 Q. It was not negotiating with individual crew members about
31 what the starting rate in Inner London was, or anything
32 like that. It just said what the rate of pay was?
33 A. Yes, we responded to the market.
34
35 Q. You responded to the market, but there is no question of
36 negotiating with anyone?
37 A. No. We would listen to what they have to say. That
38 was all, at their rap sessions. If they had a complaint
39 about pay then that would be addressed at the crew
40 meeting.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: And nothing would be done, would it?
43 A. We would listen to it; we would consider it.
44
45 MS. STEEL: Can you remember any single occasion when after crew
46 members said that their pay was not enough the Company
47 raised it?
48 A. I cannot remember any single occasion when crew said
49 pay was not enough. I did not attend that many rap
50 sessions. I attended a lot of crew meetings.
51
52 MR. MORRIS: Crew meetings are compulsory meetings, are they
53 not?
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do not, I suggest, get side-tracked on to
56 it. By all means go on to the other meeting which you knew
57 nothing about, if you want to ask about that.
58
59 MR. MORRIS: So the Liverpool meeting, I am sorry, I did not
60 write down the year it was, but you said something like it
