Agenda item

The Committee is asked to agree that the final authorisation for non-schools redundancies be made at Corporate Management Team, with the exception of Senior Officers’ redundancies which will continue to be authorised at Employment Committee.  

The Chief Officer: Human Resources reported that the Council’s Constitution did not require the Employment Committee to approve all redundancies but that it had become custom and practice over the years for the Committee to approve redundancies. This had become problematic given the Transformation Programme that the Council was currently undergoing. The scale and pace of change was significant and bringing decision making on redundancies to the Committee was slowing the pace of change and increasing cost and uncertainty for staff. If redundancies weren’t approved by the Committee, cumulative savings would be significant. Chief officer redundancies and any redundancies senior to this would continue to be approved by the Committee in accordance with the Committee’s terms of reference.

The Committee expressed concern around these proposals. There was concern that Members would no longer be able to influence or oversee these decisions and that there should be Member input from the Employment Committee. If decisions were needed urgently, these should be taken in consultation with the Chairman and emails sent to the rest of the Committee, or extra meetings of the Committee be convened. The Committee noted that whilst the majority of redundancies were agreeable, there were exceptions and it was important that Members continued to have oversight.

The Chairman reminded Members that the current terms of reference for the Committee did not give the Committee authority to agree these redundancies. If these proposals were agreed primary oversight of these decisions would rest with Executive Members. Employment Committee Members would continue to be kept informed and have the opportunity to ask questions and influence decisions.

The Committee remained concerned that the opportunity to debate would be lost. If these proposals were to be adopted it would be critical to ensure that Employment Committee Members were consulted on redundancies in good time allowing them the opportunity to give an input and influence decisions. The Committee were clear that they did not simply want to be informed that these decisions had been taken.

It was reiterated that trade unions had been clear that in their view Members should continue to be involved in decisions relating to redundancy of staff and that the Local Joint Committee was one of the ways to do this. The Committee felt a responsibility to oversee these staffing issues and currently the approval of redundancies constituted the majority of the work of the Committee.

The Chief Officer: Human Resources reported that at present by the time redundancy reports were brought to the Committee, quite often the consultation period had ended and all work was complete including selection processes and appeals, bar issuing a dismissal notice. At this point, the redundancy was almost irretrievable in any event. This led to increasing uncertainty for staff for a prolonged period as was evident with the current Council Wide Support Services Review.

The Committee expressed that it was important for Committee Members to be consulted on these decisions at an early stage. This could be at the same time that trade unions were consulted or in tandem with the Corporate Management Team..

The Chairman proposed that he consult with the Leader and the Chief Executive on a model of operation that allowed the Employment Committee to be a consultee at an early part of the process, allowing Members to contribute.

RESOLVED that the Chairman consult with the Leader and the Chief Executive on a model of operation that allowed the Employment Committee to be a consultee on redundancy decisions at an early part of the process, allowing Members to contribute and that proposals be brought back to the next meeting of the Committee.