Day 189 - 20 Nov 95 - Page 10

     
     1   Q.   Who were sidelined?
     2        A.  The Irish management were sidelined.
     3
     4   Q.   There was a seven month long strike; is that correct?
     5        A.  Yes.
     6
     7   Q.   Something like that.  You were the shop steward from the
     8        very beginning for your store ---
     9        A.  Yes, I was.
    10
    11   Q.   -- elected.  Then what happened at the end?
    12        A.  There was a labour relations -- a Labour Court hearing,
    13        and the judge -----
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I know about that.  I have read the
    16        recommendations.  So you can take it for granted that
    17        I know about that.
    18        A.  OK.
    19
    20   MR. MORRIS:  What happened to you, personally; what happened at
         the very end?
    22        A.  OK.  Agreement was reached that the workers return to
    23        work.  When that agreement was reached with the union,
    24        I was informed by the union that McDonald's had told them
    25        that they no longer required a lobby hostess, that that
    26        position no longer existed.
    27
    28   Q.   Did you have ever get a letter from McDonald's inviting you
    29        to do any other job, or anything like that?
    30        A.  No, I did not.
    31
    32   Q.   Did you ever get an apology from McDonald's?
    33        A.  No, I did not.
    34
    35   Q.   What did you do about that, then?
    36        A.  My union recommended that we take it to a
    37        Rights Commissions hearing, which they did, and we
    38        successfully won our case.  The Rights Commissioner, in
    39        outlining his recommendation, stated that it was quite
    40        clear that I was victimised because of my trade union
         activity; and that he could not recommend reinstatement, so
    42        he recommended compensation, which McDonald's paid.
    43
    44   Q.   Why could he not recommend reinstatement?
    45        A.  I do not -- in terms of how the Irish Industrial
    46        Relations Services work, it is not within his power to do
    47        that.  He would have to appeal it to the Labour Court.
    48
    49   Q.   I have nearly finished now.  Just one question:  do you
    50        have any estimate of the number of employees there were at 
    51        the Grafton Street branch when this dispute started, when 
    52        the strike started? 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Could I just ask her a question about it?
    55        The Rights Commissioner -- I may have misunderstood or not
    56        remembered the evidence accurately, but I thought the
    57        Rights Commissioner was, as it were, a halfway house to a
    58        ruling by the Labour Board itself; that he or she looked
    59        into the matter and made various recommendations; and then,
    60        obviously, if the feuding parties accepted the