Day 120 - 03 May 95 - Page 31
1 questions, based on allegations made in witness statements,
2 of which this witness has no knowledge, on the basis that
3 they might in due course be proved. I have the gravest
4 doubts whether many of them ever will be.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is legitimate to ask hypothetical
7 questions in certain situations, but what you have to ask
8 yourself is the extent to which it is productive to ask
9 Mr. Nicholson whether he is concerned about something. In
10 some cases it may be, because you may say: "Mr. Nicholson
11 was Head of Personnel and he may be as near as I can get to
12 the nerve centre of McDonald's so far as attitudes to
13 unions and employees are concerned". As it happens, I do
14 not think you this is a good example. You may come to
15 another one which is. I mean, he might not be concern
16 about this, for instance, because that might just have been
17 an expression, if it was said, of a particular manager's
18 point of view and Mr. Nicholson does not agree with it. So
19 I do not think that is necessarily going to get you very
20 far. Try another something else.
21
22 MR. MORRIS: On the subject of taboos, if, in the course of the
23 Company's compiling of information about staff concerns and
24 grievances, they found there were areas of taboo, i.e.
25 things that the staff did not feel they could do or talk
26 about which they had a right to, whatever the subject was,
27 would that be something that concerned McDonald's.
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Would it concern you if it had got about
30 among crew members that they talked about joining unions at
31 their peril; would that concern you?
32 A. If it was widespread, absolutely, and I would expect
33 people to take steps to correct the attitude.
34
35 MR. MORRIS: Has the Company ever issued any memo, letter,
36 article in Mac News, leaflets, or whatever, in which they
37 assured or reassured all staff members they had a right to
38 join a trade union?
39 A. Not in my time.
40
41 Q. Have you heard of a rumour -- or it may be a fact -- that
42 a store was closed down by management because the crew
43 formed a union at McDonald's?
44 A. In the UK? .
45
46 Q. In the UK?
47 A. No.
48
49 Q. Have you heard a rumour to that effect?
50 A. No.
51
52 Q. Have you heard that fact in any other country, or that fact
53 or that rumour for any other country?
54 A. No, I have no knowledge of other countries. I have
55 never heard of that happening in the UK.
56
57 Q. Have you heard of the rumour that it has happened?
58
59 MR. RAMPTON: I do not believe it is a proper use of
60 cross-examination to ask a witness whether he had heard
