| Time: | 3.00pm | Place: | Committee Room 1, Council Offices, Gernon Road, Letchworth Garden City |
| PRESENT: | Councillor Mrs A.G. Ashley (Chairman), Councillor Fiona Hill, Councillor Bernard Lovewell, Councillor Mrs L.A. Needham, Mrs D Levett (Unison), C Corr (Staff Consultation Forum). |
| IN ATTENDANCE: | Strategic Director of Customer Services Corporate Human Resources Manager Employee Relations Officer Committee and Member Services Officer |
| ALSO PRESENT: | |
| Meeting attachment |
Agenda Front Pages |
| Item | Description/Resolution | Status | Action | |
| PART I | ||||
| 10 |
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Judi Billing and Chris Carter. The Strategic Director of Customer Services arrived at 3.10pm and Cllr Fiona Hill arrived at 3.50pm. |
Noted | ||
| 11 |
MINUTES Minutes It was agreed that the Minutes of the JSCC meeting held on 25 June 2014 be confirmed as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chairman. |
Agreed | ||
| 12 |
NOTIFICATION OF OTHER BUSINESS No other business was put forward for discussion at this Meeting. |
Noted | ||
| 13 |
CHAIRMAN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS The Chairman welcomed all Members and officers to the meeting. She then read out the following statement: ‘Members were reminded that any declarations of interest in respect of any business set out in the agenda, should be declared as either a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or Declarable Interest and they are required to notify the Chairman of the nature of any interest declared at the commencement of the relevant item on the agenda. Members declaring a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest must withdraw from the meeting for the duration of the item. Members declaring a Declarable Interest which requires they leave the room under Paragraph 7.4 of the Code of Conduct, can speak on the item, but must leave the room before the debate and vote. |
Noted | ||
| 14 |
STAFF CONSULTATION FORUM SCF - 2.7.14 SCF - 3.9.14 The Corporate Human Resources Manager (CHRM) referred the JSCC to the Minutes of the meetings of the Staff Consultation Forum (SCF) held on 2 July and 3 September 2014, for details of the meetings, actions taken and the items carried forward. A meeting of the SCF had not been held in August 2014, due to many of the usual participants being on leave at that time. The CHRM provided a summary of the main updates from each meeting as follows: 2 July 2014 She referred to Item 4 NHDC Update, reminding Members that staff had been thanked for their efforts in achieving the Investors in People (IiP) Accreditation. The results of the Staff Survey were also pleasing, as many members of staff had stated that they were happy to work for NHDC. Under Employee Queries, the subject of closing the Council offices for two half days over the Christmas period was raised, and the Strategic Director of Customer Services (SDCS) had revealed that SMT had allocated the Statutory Days, keeping in mind the maintenance of sensible closure periods for Council offices. Any questions of upkeep and cleanliness in either the District Council Offices or the multi storey car park must be reported in the first instance to Property Services. 3 September 2014 (Draft) Under Green Issues, the Committee were informed that recent clear out days included the regular use of the confidential shredding scheme, and more were planned for the future. It was recently announced on the NHDC Intranet that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) had raised the threat from international terrorism to the UK from SUBSTANTIAL to SEVERE. All staff should be familiar with the Council's procedures for dealing with bomb threats or suspicious packages. Following the recent reaccreditation of IiP, a high level action plan has been discussed. A review of arrangements for communication will be made, involving several actions. All staff will be informed in due course via the circulation of SCF Minutes by global email. The SDCS advised that there would be a review of electric cigarettes in the workplace in the future, following the call from the British Medical Association (BMA) for a ban of these in public places as a precautionary measure. This was the BMA view and a precautionary measure, not resulting from clear evidence. A pilot scheme had been implemented whereby ‘e cigs' could be used in the canteen on the 5th floor but not at staff's desks. This was not permitted and would lead to the use of electronic cigarettes in the building altogether. The question was raised on the consideration by SCF of the restructure report for the Policy and Community Development Team. The CHRM advised that this had been circulated for members to comment by email. A discussion ensued on the amended Flexi time Policy, stressing that although the hours to be worked were flexible for full time staff it was vital that 6 core hours up to 5.15pm were worked. The proposed policy changes had been discussed at the SCF Meeting in February 2014. It was explained to Members that a full day's working hours numbered 7 hours 24 minutes. Finally, it was advised under the title Payroll System, that for staff having any queries, the Frequently Asked Questions page provides information. A significant amount of work was being done on improving the level of service, and a Temporary Payroll Contract expert had been employed to help Human Resources with any problems. It was agreed: That the information provided in the above sets of Minutes of the Staff Consultation Forum be noted. |
Noted | ||
| 15 |
PEOPLE STRATEGY UPDATE Update The Corporate Human Resources Manager (CHRM) presented the Committee with the latest quarterly update on the progress made to the People Strategy 2011-2015 Report, which also incorporated the Council's Workforce Development Plan. She informed the Committee that the last three months had been very busy with the new Payroll System, on which several errors had been made by SERCO. However, once emergency payments had been made, the matter had been resolved, The Committee were taken through Appendix A and the updated Appraisal Completion table. The final figure was 96.7% of appraisals completed by 31 July 2014, an excellent result. The CHRM touched on the Absence Rates rolling 12 months and Appendix B, the Strategy Action Plan, which was largely unchanged. It was agreed: That the progress against the People Strategy and HR People Strategy Work Plan for 2014/2015 be noted. REASON FOR DECISION: To support the achievement of the Authority's key priorities. |
Noted | ||
| 16 |
NATIONAL PAY BARGAINING 2014 Pay Bargaining Update The Corporate Human Resources Manager (CHRM) commented that the round of annual pay bargaining had gone on so long that it felt almost permanent. An offer of 1% had been made to bring the scales above the minimum wage. A strike had been held in July and another was scheduled for 14 October. Talks had restarted on 22 August, although the general consensus was that industrial action would be taken. The Strategic Director of Customer Services (SDCS) commented that there had been lack of movement on improving terms and conditions. It was agreed: That the National Pay Bargaining Update be noted. |
Noted | ||
| 17 |
STAFF SURVEY REPORT - EXTRACT Extract from Staff Survey Report The Corporate Human Resources Manager (CHRM) explained that the Staff Survey Report was a very large document, so it had been decided to present to the Joint Staff Consultative Committee (JSCC) an extract with the most important aspects shown. She touched on several points of the Staff Survey Extract, as follows: - Out of the 238 staff who responded, 62% still rated NHDC as the best place to work (a 7% increase on 2012); - 79% of staff were satisfied with their job. There were concerns about career progression and office accommodation. - 90% of staff claimed ‘friendly colleagues' helped with job satisfaction; - 88% were satisfied with ‘working hours'; - 83% were happy with the ‘interesting work' they carried out. A selection of comments was given to illustrate the variety of responses in the Staff Survey. |
Noted | ||
| 18 |
RETENTION AND EQUALITIES UPDATE Update The Employee Relations Officer introduced this report and went through the major points. Under the heading of Recent Performance she emphasised that in all but one of the six months covered in the reporting period, the actual turnover rate was above the target rate. Under Reasons for Leaving, Redundancy also covered apprentices leaving at the end of their temporary contract. Those that do leave have a qualification and/or work experience and training and get help from the HR team to apply for their next career step. The main reason for leaving, as shown in Leavers' Questionnaires, was job dissatisfaction, mainly because there was limited opportunity for career development. Committee discussion raised the question of whether or not money was a big issue; and whether information on leavers was kept when they left. The SDCS pointed out that information from exit interviews was private and confidential. Finally, it was pointed out that 4.36% of employees had a disability, following a slight downward trend from the last three years, which were 4.8%, 5.57% and 5.87%. |
Noted | ||
| 19 |
DISCUSSION - LONG TERM SICK ABSENCE CASE MANAGEMENT Discussion Paper The Corporate Human Resources Manager introduced the discussion paper, after which the Committee was to discuss the topic. She gave an overview on long term sick absence cases, stating that anybody could find they need a long term absence for a serious health condition and that the Council should be able to support staff in this category, with the person's manager playing a key role. She explained that the term "long term absence consisted of anybody absent for 21 days and more. Managers should stay in touch with the sick employee, should be supportive and ideally have them pop into the office from time to time. Dialogue was considered to be very important, as staff could become isolated when cut off, and this could lead to depression and debilitation. The utmost sensitivity was required. A Committee discussion followed and it was noted that when people had a considerable amount of time off work there could be a lot of pressure on other members of the team. . The Committee was informed that Occupational Health use a Stress Questionnaire. Some managers and HR at NHDC had recently attended training on Mental Health Problems, and counselling was available from the Employee Assistance Programme. It was agreed that mental health, stress and depression were much more prevalent nowadays and those in the workplace needed to be supportive. The Chairman thanked the CHRM for presenting this Discussion Paper. |
Agreed | ||
| 20 |
SUGGESTED DISCUSSION TOPICS List of Topics It was decided that the topic for the next meeting of the JSCC would be Local Government Pay. Before the closure of the meeting, Cllr Needham thanked the Human Resources team for their help towards the elected member who had had an accident. |
Agreed | ||