Day 143 - 27 Jun 95 - Page 06

     
     1
     2   THE WITNESS:  Shall I place this in the book, my Lord?
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I suggest is if Mr. Riley could give
     5        that bundle back to Mrs. Brinley-Codd for the moment and
     6        when she has a moment it will be brought up-to-date.  Yes?
     7
     8   MR. MORRIS:  Just going to the New Zealand situation, it is the
     9        case, is it not, that union recognition was compulsory in
    10        New Zealand until fairly recently; is that correct?
    11        A.  I know that we were -- that the stores from the
    12        beginning of the operations in New Zealand were union, and
    13        I know that there have been successive labour agreements
    14        since then.  As far as the legalities and the legal
    15        requirements in New Zealand, my knowledge is just that,
    16        that there were not any issues that I am aware of, or was
    17        aware of, and it was a union environment with the contract.
    18
    19   Q.   Have you been to New Zealand?
    20        A.  I was there in the mid 70s.  I have not been there
         since.
    22
    23   Q.   Are you aware that new laws were passed in 1991, the
    24        Employment Contracts Act, which allowed employers to
    25        derecognise unions?
    26        A.  What I am aware of is that -- I do not know what dates
    27         -- I am aware that compulsory unionisation, as I would
    28        call it, was not required any further.  I think there was
    29        some requirement in New Zealand that all employees needed
    30        to be members of a union and they had no choice in the
    31        matter, that I am aware of, but -- and I have some general
    32        knowledge that there was some legislation dealing with
    33        that, but the specifics of it, I do not know.
    34
    35   Q.   Do you know anything about the changes that McDonald's
    36        brought in to employees' rights soon after the Employment
    37        Contracts Act in 1991, or soon after you were aware that
    38        the law had changed, are you aware that McDonald's took
    39        advantage of that to get rid of certain employees' rights
    40        that had been recognised before that?
         A.  No, I am not -- I am not aware of that.
    42
    43   Q.   You have a general understanding of the situation in New
    44        Zealand with regard to McDonald's Labour Relations, do you?
    45        A.  The last time I had any conversation with management
    46        people from New Zealand was at a Christmas -- this past
    47        Christmas -- party in Chicago and there was no discussion
    48        of Labour Relations matters at that time.  There were other
    49        Human Resource issues or discussions, but there was no
    50        reference to Labour Relations because I was told everything 
    51        is fine, and he just had a couple of questions concerning 
    52        other issues. 
    53
    54   Q.   When was that, sorry?
    55        A.  That would be in Christmas, so that would be December
    56        of 1994.
    57
    58   Q.   Everything was fine, was it not, because now McDonald's had
    59        the power to derecognise the union and decrease workers'
    60        rights that they had been forced to accept beforehand?