Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Hannah Stevenson  01344 352308

Items
No. Item

21.

Declarations of Interest

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

 

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

 

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

22.

Minutes from previous meeting pdf icon PDF 147 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 16 October 2019.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 16 October 2019 be approved

as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

23.

Urgent Items of Business

Any other items which, pursuant to Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Chairman decides are urgent.

Minutes:

There were no urgent items of business.

24.

Update from the Chairman of the Local Joint Committee

A verbal update from the Chairman of the Local Joint Committee.

Minutes:

The Chairman advised that they had met with Trade Union colleagues earlier to

discuss tonight’s meeting.

 

It was reported that UNISON had raised a couple of issues, the first was in relation to the spinal points that had been update on pay grades earlier in the year. The Head of HR & Employee Experience needed to the check outcome and would report back at the next meeting.

 

The second issue was in regard to the Sickness Policy that had been approved at the last meeting. UNISON had requested that the policy consider effect sickness absence could have on people with disabilities where their phased return was longer than the specified 8 weeks. They felt that this should be longer for cases where the council was not able to secure appropriate reasonable adjustments. It was agreed that an addition line be added to the policy which would state that cases would be considered on their own individual merits.

 

25.

Minutes of Sub Groups pdf icon PDF 125 KB

The Committee is asked to note the minutes of the Local Joint Committee held on 16 October 2019.

Minutes:

The Committee noted the minutes of the Local Joint Committee held on 10 July

2019.

26.

Monitoring The Council's Workforce Report 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 489 KB

To note the Monitoring the Council's Workforce Reports and endorse the strategies proposed for 2019/20.

Minutes:

The Committee received the Monitoring the Council's Workforce Report 2018/19

 

Trish Barnard, Head of HR and Employee Experience reported that this was an annual report and that the Council had a statutory requirement to report this data back to the Government on an annual basis.

 

Going forward the Head of HR and Employee Experience would find out how the data is being reported to government, as the report itself was very jumbled.  If it was just the raw data that was being reported then this would give the flexibility to change the format of the report and make it into a more useful report for Member’s.

 

At the Local Joint Committee suggestions had been made that going forward the report should include data comparable data both locally and nationally and set out clearly what the councils’ aspirations were and what it wished to be achieving. It was suggested that this could be looked at by the Council’s equalities group whose terms of reference had recently been refreshed.

 

The Committee commented that the report didn’t address what the legal duty was, nor did it go into deal on a number of issues and the that the content raised more questions than gave answers.

 

It was agreed that the Chairman would meet with the Head of HR and Employee Experience outside of the meeting to discuss the report doing forward and would bring a brief report to the next meeting of the Employment Committee.  

 

RESOLVED that:

 

         i.           the Committee noted the report contents and endorsed the actions and initiatives proposed for 2019/20.

 

       ii.           The Committee agreed that future reports will be amalgamated into an annual Workforce Report.

27.

Exclusion of Public and Press

To consider the following motion:

 

That pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of the following item which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of that Act:

 

(3)        Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of the following item which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of that Act:

 

(1)        Information relating to any individual  (Item 9).

28.

Pay Policy Statement

Annual statement of policy in relation to remuneration of senior employees, remuneration of lowest employees and the relationship between the remuneration of senior employees and other staff.

Minutes:

The Committee received a report on the Council’s Pay Policy Statement.

 

Trish Barnard, Head of HR and Employee Experience reported that this was an annual requirement and ensured that the Council complied with the Department of Communities and Local Government guidance and 2014 Transparency Code requirements.

 

The report provided a factual breakdown of staff salary and senior salary which highlighted the Councils commitment to transparency and equity in pay.

 

The report would be formally agreed at Council in January 2020.

 

RESOLVED that:

 

       i.          the Employment Committee agree the content of the Pay Statement for

2019/20

 

      ii.          the Employment Committee recommended publication of the Pay Statement to Council

 

 

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk