Day 122 - 05 May 95 - Page 26

     
     1   Q.  --  increased the minimum, did those workers remain 20 or 25
     2        pence above?
     3        A.  Yes.
     4
     5   Q.   Well, why does that say this year, for the first time, if
     6        you were 15 pence over the old rate, you will remain 15
     7        pence above the new rate?
     8        A.  Wherever you were?
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The position is this, as I understand it,
    11        before 1987, let us suppose were you 25p above the basic
    12        rate for McDonald's, which itself was marginally above the
    13        Wages Council minimum rate.  If for the next year the Wages
    14        Council minimum rate went up about 10p, let us suppose it
    15        went up 9.95p, so McDonald's, having considered the rest of
    16        industry, and the High Street and that increase, decided to
    17        put its own basic rate up 10p?
    18        A.  That is what they did.
    19
    20   Q.   The person who had been 25p up the year before might not
         get that 10p increase?
    22        A.  He might not get it.
    23
    24   Q.   He might get 7p, or whatever the regional was decided at?
    25        A.  Whatever the region decided.
    26
    27   Q.   He did not, however, as Ms. Steel started this part of the
    28        cross-examination by suggesting, go back to the basic,
    29        losing his increments?
    30        A.  No.
    31
    32   Q.   But from 1987 ---
    33        A.  We simplified it.
    34
    35   Q.  --  you got the whole 10p?
    36        A.  Everybody got it.
    37
    38   Q.   There was no question waiting to see whether he got an
    39        extra 7p or an extra 8p.
    40        A.  No.  He got what the increase in the minimum was on his
         current rate.
    42
    43   MS. STEEL:  That was actually what I was trying to say.
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not see any inconsistency between that,
    46        myself, and what is written in that second paragraph.
    47
    48   MS. STEEL:  That was what I was trying to say, except that if
    49        the worker was 25p above the minimum for 1985 ---
    50        A.  Yes. 
    51 
    52   Q.  -- then the minimum wage was increased by 30 pence, they 
    53        would then be back to the minimum for the next year?
    54        A.  No.
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, what they might do is lose all their 25p
    57        advantage over basic, they might find they only got 23p.
    58
    59   MS. STEEL:  That is what I am saying.
    60