| Time: | 3.00 pm | Place: | Committee Room 1, Council Offices, Gernon Road, Letchworth Garden City |
| PRESENT: | Councillor Tricia Cowley(Chairman), Councillor Judi Billing, Councillor Mrs L.A. Needham, C Corr(Staff Consultation Forum), Councillor Lawrence Oliver(Substitute). |
| IN ATTENDANCE: | Corporate Human Resources Manager Human Resources Development Employee Relations Officer Committee and Member Services Officer. |
| ALSO PRESENT: | Jacqui Hamilton (UNISON) Chris Carter, SCF |
| Item | Description/Resolution | Status | Action | |
| PART I | ||||
| 1 |
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies for absence were received from Councillor T. W. Hone and Councillor Lee Downie for whom Councillor Lawrence Oliver substituted. The Strategic Director of Customer Services, John Robinson, as well as Dee Levett and Bob Leverett from UNISON offered their apologies for absence. Jacqui Hamilton represented the union in their place. |
Noted | ||
| 2 |
MINUTES Minutes It was agreed that the Minutes of the JSCC meeting held on 15 December 2010 be confirmed as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chairman, with the amendment that Chris Carter had attended that meeting to represent the Staff Consultation Forum and this should be recorded in the Minutes. |
Agreed | ||
| 3 |
NOTIFICATION OF OTHER BUSINESS No other items were presented for consideration by the Committee. |
Noted | ||
| 4 |
CHAIRMAN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS The Chairman welcomed both Members and officers to this last meeting of the Joint Staff Consultative Committee for the Civic Year 2010/2011. Members were reminded that declarations of interest in respect of any business set out in the agenda and the nature of the interest, should be declared as either a prejudicial or personal interest at the commencement of the relevant item on the agenda. Members declaring a prejudicial interest should leave the room and not seek to influence the decision during that particular item. |
Noted | ||
| 5 |
STAFF CONSULTATION FORUM SCF Minutes 5.1.11 SCF Minutes 2.2.11 SCF Draft Minutes 2.3.11 The Corporate Human Resources Manager (CHRM) referred the JSCC to the Minutes for the meetings of the Staff Consultation Forum (SCF) held on 5 January, 2 February and the Draft Minutes of 2 March 2011, for details of the meetings, actions taken and items carried forward. She provided a summary of the main points from each meeting. 5 January The precise meaning of, and difference between, permanent homeworkers and partial homeworkers was clarified - they are not full-time homeworkers. She outlined the process of selection for homeworkers, where managers identified staff willing to switch to permanent homeworking and the whole team decided on the days each staff member would be working at home and which days they would be sharing desks ("hot desking") in the office. This was then recorded on the team's Outlook calendar. She confirmed that Homeworking/Office Accommodation was a standing item on the SCF Agenda, as was Saving Suggestions. The Strategic Director of Customer Services (SDCS) had given the SCF an update of the budget situation at NHDC on 5 January, and the SCF was now waiting to hear the outcome of the budget cuts. The CHRM then expressed the Council's thanks to all staff who had made an effort to come to work and to keep the services running during the severe weather suffered in the last weeks of 2010. She declared that Customer First Standards were good, with communications working well for staff via calendar displays, telephone handling etc. The item on Employee Queries raised the subject of staff complaints regarding cold offices due to the failure of some radiators to work properly. 2 February The activity entitled "Tell JC" was explained to Members as suggestions for Council savings proposed by NHDC staff via an email to the address Tell John C. Under the heading of Homeworking/Office Accommodation, the CHRM stated that the discussion in February was centred on telephones at NHDC and their functions. Under SCF Representation, Christina Corr explained that she had agreed to represent the staff still working at Town Lodge, until such time as they all transfer to DCO. Under Employee Queries, the CHRM advised that the allocation of two statutory days at the Christmas break was being looked at and a Member commented that it had been said that the Council's heating and lighting was used excessively over the Christmas period. She was informed that a consultation was being carried out to minimise the time that offices were closed over Christmas. Staff were also being consulted on the problems with office heating during the cool months and the number of fans used during the summer months to cool the offices. It was remarked that now there were more staff in DCO, the temperature in the offices would be higher and more fans would be needed. Air conditioning had been installed only on Floor 5 of the District Council Offices, as until the future of the building lease was decided it would be foolish to embark on expensive alterations. A general observation was made that when guests are invited to address the SCF and cannot attend, they do not currently nominate substitutes in the same field. The CHRM will ensure that each guest who is invited to the SCF Meeting but cannot attend, organises a stand-in to attend the Staff Consultation Forum in his/her place. 2 March (Draft) It was pointed out that under NHDC Update, the Strategic Director of Customer Services (SDCS) had agreed the medium term options (not actions) for Shared Services. There had been an award of a £850,000 (not £800,000) grant for town halls in Hertfordshire, and this needed clarification. A Member commented that there were potential implications for staff. Under Homeworking/Office Accommodation the term "cross shredders" was explained and Chris Carter remarked that the staff referred to under Desk Share sound like those in the Planning Department, who are always carrying heavy files and boxes around. It was their personal responsibility to ensure that they carried the heavy items safely. It was confirmed that Savings Suggestions would be on the SCF Agenda in the next Financial Year. Lastly, the CHRM confirmed that the Statutory Days to be taken at Christmas 2011 would be a half day on 23 December and a half day on 30 December 2011. It was agreed: That the information provided in the three sets of Minutes of the Staff Consultation Forum be noted. |
Agreed | ||
| 6 |
PEOPLE STRATEGY 2008 - 2011 UPDATE Report Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C The Corporate Human Resources Manager (CHRM) presented the Committee with a final update on the People Strategy Update report for 2008/2011. She explained the resourcing issues at para 4.1 and advised that Appendix C to the report gave a commentary of the progress made over the period 2008 through to 2011 and Appendix B gave the key measures to the end of January 2011. The absence rates to the end of January (5.8) and February (5.73) were the best figures for many years. She offered to do a report on the staff who had taken no sick leave and thank them. The Committee discussed the report and applauded the results. They were informed that the December graph covered only absence due to sickness and commented that the figures must be close to those of the private sector. The Chairman asked the CHRM for a comparison between the sectors at the next meeting of the JSCC in June, and then annually for the Committee's consideration. The CHRM agreed to provide this. There had been a low take-up on bikes for work, although it was suggested that Green Travel should be carried forward to the next People Strategy. Human Resources (HR) were still waiting to hear the final decision on the feasibility of introducing a Salary Sacrifice Childcare Voucher scheme for children up to age 16. The CHRM pointed out that homeworking was the best way of reducing commuting and therefore promoting Green Travel. The Committee discussed the positive response from the ‘Working in a Political Environment' workshop in 2010 and stated that in the proposed Mock Committee officers would be playing the parts of Council Members, to ensure they were familiar with the behaviour expected and the meeting procedures. More workshops of this kind were to be run as they were in demand amongst staff. It was agreed: That the Committee note the progress made against the implementation of the updated People Strategy actions 2008-2011. |
Agreed | ||
| 7 |
2011/12 PAY NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE Briefing Paper The Corporate Human Resources Manager (CHRM) took the Committee through the report and advised that out of the four options presented at the consultation briefings in December, the employers had chosen Option 1, i.e. not to make a pay offer for any pay increase in 2011/2012. Since 17 February 2011 the union had made no attempt to influence the LG Employers. The potential changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme were now important issues and updates would be included at future JSCC meetings over the Financial Year 2011/2012. |
Noted | ||
| 8 |
STRATEGIC DISCUSSION PAPER - HOME-WORKING Strategic Discussion Paper The Corporate Human Resources Manager (CHRM) introduced the paper on Home and Mobile Working - what impact is this having on customers and Members? and went through the main points, which included the background to home and mobile working, the process and how homeworkers volunteered or were selected and the current position, due to a recent massive cultural change. Homeworking was not mandatory. She explained the new telephony system, by which a member of staff could log in from home to transfer work calls to his or her home/mobile telephone. Everybody using this was instructed on how to do this, logging onto the telephone at the desk as well as the telephone at home. There had been few problems during the office accommodation moves but the telephone functionality and team organisation had become confused. The CHRM stressed that it was important that staff pick up their own telephones at home and at their desk in the District Council Offices (DCO), and mentioned that if they were answering the telephone to the Council's standards, the caller would normally be unaware of where the officer was working. One Member advised that she believed that the process put in place did not work, as she had rung different departments at NHDC on a few occasions, twice being greeted by voicemail messages and she was also put through to extensions with no greeting message. She believed that the voicemail system was misleading and should be done away with. The Member claimed that there are other ways of setting up calls and the problem was the way it was used by staff. The message was frustrating and needed to be changed. The Committee then discussed the email ‘Out of Office Assistant' system and the Web Sense procedure that blocked incoming emails, often those that were eagerly awaited and then notified the recipient after several hours, even days, that their messages were awaiting collection. This was considered to be extremely frustrating. Discussion also covered ‘hot-desking' (several homeworkers sharing the same desk), the necessity for homeworkers to have Broadband installed at home to be able to work from home and the fact that payment was available for the necessary equipment to set up homeworking. The Committee proceeded to discuss the method used by NHDC to monitor the behaviour and output of homeworkers. They were advised that some roles could easily be measured and there were other roles where an officer plans and delivers his or her own work. These members of staff could not be watched all the time and their managers' judgement was used. Any issues with work performance would be passed to Human Resources, although there had been none to date. The Human Resources Development Manager (HRDM) advised that all managers of homeworkers would be given training in the new style and practices. She stated that Revenues and Benefits had been working this way for quite some time and investigation showed that their level of productivity had risen considerably. One Member agreed that a qualitative output would be hard to measure and another revealed that some major companies in the United Kingdom (GlaxoSmithKline, Boots etc) had tried homeworking for approximately 4 years, had now decided that it did not work and were phasing it out. However, this would be difficult for NHDC, as due to the staff in Town Lodge moving into DCO, there was now no space (including a desk or seat) for ex-homeworkers in the DCO. The comment was made that these big companies had a different pattern of working and that the majority of NHDC homeworkers appeared to be women. The HRDM also explained that the appraisal processes were designed to help managers to monitor each officer's performance. It was agreed: That the discussion paper on Home and Mobile Working - What Impact is this Having on Customers and Members? be noted. |
Noted | ||
| 9 |
SUGGESTED DISCUSSION TOPICS List The Committee discussed the list of Suggested Discussion Topics and another title was chosen - Managing Long Term Absence - what can be done when people are seriously ill, what are the processes behind managing long term sick leave? It was agreed that a completely new list be provided for the next Joint Staff Consultative Committee Meeting in June 2011 (the exact date is to be notified shortly). |
Agreed | ||