Day 214 - 01 02 96 - Page 53

 
 

                                                                  DAY 214
 
                                           DAVID ROBERTS, Cross-examined:
 
 
 
     1
     2   Q.   Would they tend to be 5 and 10 -----
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  As a matter of English, you cannot get a
     5        nought pence pay rise.
     6
     7   MR. MORRIS:  All right.
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not just picking at you.  You see, the
    10        one thing I notice, the distinction which he has got from
    11        all the others where exactly the same rate is put in, is
    12        that when you get on to new evening and new premium, there
    13        is a change.  It looks as if he is docked 5 pence -- if
    14        that is a minus after it.  For all I know, there is some
    15        special method there of -- if anyone's rates comes down for
    16        some reason because some mistake has been made in the past,
    17        or something like that, whereas they put minus 5 pence in
    18        the evening and premium, they just put noughts in the
    19        regular.  So maybe that is just as if he was 3.85.
    20
    21        What troubles me about this is -- I do not know whether I
    22        am going to get any more evidence on it -- I understand
    23        your point, that where the rate stays the same, you are
    24        saying they were not just eligible for pay reviews, but
    25        they were on the second pay review, as it were, so they
    26        were eligible for pay rises.
    27
    28   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  This was their four monthly period, as it
    31        were.  They either did not get a performance review in
    32        which case they could not get a pay rise ---
    33
    34   MR. MORRIS:  Exactly.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  -- or if they got a performance review, the
    37        second one, the second two monthly one, as it were,
    38        although they were eligible for a pay rise, they did not
    39        actually get one.  But what troubles me -----
    40
    41   MR. MORRIS:  It would be worse for the Plaintiffs if so many
    42        people failed their performance view and got a nought
    43        rise.  I assume that nought noughts generally in these
    44        charts would be that in those cases these were not
    45        (inaudible); they did not get a pay rise but they did get a
    46        pay review, because otherwise ------
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not know whether that matters.  The
    49        reason I am -- it is the merest detail in the whole of this
    50        case -- querying that is it looks as if he was docked 5p on 
    51        new evening rate and new premium rate.  I have not heard 
    52        yet of any system whereby you get a pay review and you get 
    53        docked money as a result of that.
    54
    55   MR. MORRIS (To the witness):  Does that sometimes happen that if
    56        you get a pay review your pay can actually go down?
    57        A.  No, it does not.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What it occurs to me is that somehow or other
    60        he got over the maximum rate or he had been given 5p in the
 
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