Fair Pay?

In November, John was elected employee representative in a small engineering firm. Three
months later the annual wage review was due. John was concerned about how he might
best represent the workers.
Bob the manager of the engineering company felt that wages were above average for
comparable companies in the district even when taking into account the different types of
jobs within the company and the differences in, for example, skills required, working
conditions and seniority.
At Johns request, Bob sent him the mean hourly wages for January. The data had been
called wage rates but John realised that they had been prorated from gross earnings.

The letter and data supplied by Bob (see Excel file) raised a number of questions in Johns
mind. What do you think these might be?
John proposes to put a report to Bob using the data supplied to support the workers case
for a fair increase in wages. You have been asked to advise John on how best to represent
the employees case. Make a note of any points you think should be raised in the report. In
addition think about how Bob might argue his point that the employees are already well paid.