Agenda, decisions and minutes

The agenda and reports associated with this minute can be found here

Please note that if any changes are made to this minute at the point of approval, these will be outlined in the subsequent minute and this document will not be retrospectively altered.

The Convener opened the meeting and welcomed members and Trade Union advisors to the first meeting of the Staff Governance Committee. She highlighted the importance of members, advisors and officers working together for the benefit of staff.

Members were requested to intimate any declarations of interest in respect of the items on today’s agenda, thereafter, the following declarations of interest were intimated at this stage in the meeting:-:

(i)           The Convener and Councillor Macdonald declared an interest in all items on the agenda by virtue of their membership of Unite the Union but neither felt it necessary to leave during consideration of any items of business; and

(ii)          Councillor Yuill declared an interest in all items on the agenda by virtue of his membership of Unison but did not consider it necessary to leave during consideration of any items of business.

The Committee had before it the committee business planner as prepared by the Chief Officer – Governance.  Members asked a number of questions in respect of items on the planner.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to note that the Occupational Health Annual report had been deferred to the Committee’s meeting on 29 June 2018;

(ii)     to agree that the Occupational Health Contract report be removed from the planner as this would now be reported as part of the workplan to the Strategic Commissioning Committee; and

(iii)    to note that the committee business planner would continue to be populated throughout the year to reflect the business of the committee and to otherwise note the content of the business planner.

With reference to article 2 of the minute of the meeting of the Local Government Employees Joint Consultative Committee on 20 February 2018, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which presented the existing Trade Union Consultation Protocol following a consultation issue raised by the Trades Unions.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee instruct the interim Head of HR to re-communicate the existing Trade Union Consultation Protocol to Council managers (and the recognised Trades Unions) and request that this is applied in respect of consultations with the Unions going forward, (which would include attaching Trade Union consultation responses to Committee reports at the request of the unions).

The Committee resolved:-

to instruct the interim Chief Officer – People and Organisation to re-communicate the existing Trade Union Consultation Protocol to Council managers (and the recognised Trades Unions) and request that this was applied in respect of consultations with the unions going forward, (which would include attaching Trade Union consultation responses to Committee reports at the request of the Unions).

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which sought approval of a revised Equal Pay policy.

The report recommended:-                            

that the Committee approve the attached revised Equal Pay policy.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)           to approve the recommendations; and

(ii)          to request that following the equal pay audit report having been considered by the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee a copy of the report be submitted to a meeting of this Committee for information.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which sought approval of a revised Managing Substance Misuse policy.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee approve the attached revised Managing Substance Misuse policy.

The Committee resolved:-

to defer consideration of the revised Managing Substance Misuse policy to the next meeting of the Committee on 29 June 2018 to enable further consultation with the Trades Unions on the policy to be held.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which outlined the current sickness rates across the Council and the range of measures used to get the figures moving on a downward trend.

The report recommended:-                            

that the Committee –

(a)       note the sickness rates over the past 6 months; and

(b)       endorse the approaches for reducing sickness absence across the Council.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)           to approve the recommendations; and

(ii)          to note that the content of the report would develop to reflect the Council’s new operating model with sickness absence figures to be presented by Chief Officer and also that relevant benchmarking figures would be included in the report.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which provided an update on utilisation of the Employee Assistance Service (EAS) provided by Time for Talking during the 3 month period January – March 2018.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)       consider the content of the report;

(b)       instruct the Director of Resources to request evidence from Functions on the actions taken to support individuals and address trends (usage and root causes) as detailed in the report; and

(c)        recommend that the frequency of the report submission be changed from quarterly to annually.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)         to note the contents of the report;

(ii)        to approve recommendation (b); and

(ii)        to instruct the Chief Officer – Governance to notify all Councillors of the Time for Talking Service which was available for all Councillors.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which provided an update on utilisation of the Employee Assistance Service (EAS) provided by Time for Talking during the last 12 month period April 2017 – March 2018.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)       consider the content of the report; and

(b)       instruct the Director of Resources to request evidence from Functions on the actions taken to support individuals and address trends (usage and root causes) as detailed in the report.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Governance which sought approval of a procedure for the operation of the Appeals Sub Committee in respect of appeals by staff against dismissal or final written warning where the right of appeal exists and to determine disputes notified by Trade Unions in accordance with the Council’s disputes resolution procedures.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)       approves the Appeals Sub Committee procedure appended to this report as Appendix 1;

(b)       agree that all appeals to the Appeals Sub Committee intimated after 4 May 2018 would be processed in accordance with this Appeals Sub Committee procedure; and

(c)        instruct the interim Chief Officer – People and Organisation to notify

management and the Trade Unions of the procedure.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)           to approve the Appeals Sub Committee procedure appended to this Report as Appendix 1, subject to the addition of wording to explain the appellant’s statutory right to be accompanied;

(ii)          to approve recommendations (b) and (c).

-       COUNCILLOR ALLAN, Convener