Day 140 - 22 Jun 95 - Page 06
1 MR. MORRIS: It relates to this incident and whether Mr. Stein
2 checked the conditions that the staff were working in --
3 personnel conditions; I am not interested in food safety.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Where have you pleaded something about that?
6
7 MR. MORRIS: I am talking about this incident.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Where have you pleaded, for instance, that
10 any part of the dispute arose out of the actual conditions
11 in the store?
12
13 MR. MORRIS: The point is, we are entitled to know why employees
14 should be so keen on having unions in these particular
15 stores.
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. Well, I just cannot agree with that.
18 Where you have pleaded on a topic, then you must stick, at
19 least broadly, to the thrust of the allegation in your
20 pleading on that. I have no reason whatsoever to suppose
21 that people want union representation because they think
22 that their work conditions are bad or poor in any
23 significant way. It might be because they think their
24 negotiating position will be stronger and that, whatever
25 their conditions are, they might be improved. They might
26 just think, rightly or wrongly, that it puts them in a more
27 equable position with regard to their employer who might
28 otherwise have more power than them. There are all sorts
29 of reasons. They might just, on a matter of what they see
30 as democratic principle, think unions ought to be part of
31 their lives.
32
33 There are a thousand and one reasons, and unless you have
34 pleaded one which gives the Defendants (sic) notice of
35 bringing in something like, let us suppose, allegedly poor
36 conditions in the stores, then I am going to restrict your
37 questioning about it.
38
39 MR. MORRIS: Well, that is the whole point of the question, to
40 put to Mr. Stein that the conditions in Madrid were not any
41 worse than -- they were average McDonald's stores. The
42 joint venture partner was -----
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If all you want to establish is that there
45 was nothing untoward about the conditions in the stores,
46 then I will let you ask that question, because what I have
47 just said was on the basis that I thought you were going to
48 introduce something about inferior conditions in some way,
49 which just is not pleaded.
50
51 (To the witness) So, will you answer that question: was
52 there anything untoward about the conditions in the stores
53 you noted -- that store?
54 A. No, my Lord.
55
56 MR. MORRIS: They were typical McDonald's conditions that you
57 have seen anywhere?
58 A. I have got to clarify what he is saying, "conditions".
59 Spain is a different country; Spain has their own personnel
60 people practices that would be somewhat different, because
