Day 144 - 28 Jun 95 - Page 50
1 A. With all due respect, my Lord, we have been through pay
2 increases three, four, maybe five times, and now we are
3 coming back to it again.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think this is slightly different slant or
6 may be.
7
8 MR. MORRIS: I am aware of what the system is that you are
9 claiming, but are you saying that there is not a
10 significant percentage of crew -- when we say "crew", are
11 we talking about hourly paid staff?
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, we must be; we have done for the last
14 year. It has not changed now.
15
16 MR. MORRIS: Yes, hourly paid staff. Apart from the
17 people ------
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let me put it, Mr. Morris, and then if I have
20 not covered your point, you ask it.
21 (To the witness): What Mr. Morris is enquiring into is
22 this: You have a starting rate, you have a system which
23 allows pay reviews where, if you have performed well
24 enough, you may get a rise?
25 A. Correct.
26
27 Q. That one understands, if a person stays for long enough to
28 get the benefit of possible pay reviews, but I think
29 Mr. Morris is enquiring into the sort of proportion of
30 people who, because they come and go, whether to return or
31 not, do not get to or past the first or second available
32 review so they are never going to get much above their
33 starting rate. Is that what you are looking at,
34 Mr. Morris, or part of it?
35
36 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What do you say about that, Mr. Stein?
39 A. My Lord, there are a number of people who get beyond
40 two raises. The exact percentages, I cannot break down.
41 I think I have mentioned in the past that those
42 determinations are done at the store level. We do not keep
43 computer reports on that. Our computer does not have the
44 capacity to do it. So, I cannot give you that kind of a
45 specific response. But there are a number of people who
46 do; there are a number of people who enjoy several years of
47 service who elect to stay.
48
49 But, as I mentioned my Lord, most of -- the vast majority
50 of folks who wish to stay a long time and make it a career
51 are generally moving into management or want to move into
52 management. There are some people who strictly want
53 part-time employment and some of those people do, in fact,
54 stay for many, many years.
55
56 It depends upon really the interests of the employee, but
57 the key thing for us is we do wish to give those people an
58 opportunity either to qualify for the pay rises or to move
59 up the system.
60
