| 690 | RECORD OF THE MEETING |
| | | The record of the meeting held on 22 January 2009 was agreed and signed by the Chairman as correct. |
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| 691 | DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST |
| | | Councillor Maple declared a personal interest in all items on the agenda insofar that he is a Trade Union employee (GMB) and retained his right to speak and vote on the items |
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| 692 | ANNOUNCMENT - PAY AWARD 2008/2009 |
| | | The Assistant Director, Organisational Services, reported that the National Employers had received notification via ACAS that the arbitration panel appointed to resolve the dispute over the 2008 pay award had ruled that an increase of 0.30% should be made in addition to the employers' final offer of 2.45% (plus £100 per annum on spinal column points 4, 5 and 6) that was jointly implemented last October, resulting in a pay award of 2.75% from 1 April 2008. This would be implemented by the Council with the aim of staff receiving back pay in their March payslips.
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| It was noted that with regard to the pay award for Service Managers and above, the Committee had agreed on 12 November 2008 (decision no. 448(ii)) that award would be amended automatically should arbitration result in a further increase at National level. Therefore, no further report to Committee was necessary to facilitate the pay award.
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| 693 | WORKFORCE MONITORING |
| | Discussion: |
| | | This report set out details of the Council's workforce monitoring for the period April 2007 to March 2008 following the Committee's decision in November 2008 to receive such reports on a regular basis. The report included an analysis of best value performance indicators insofar as it related to such issues as sickness absence, early retirements, ill-health retirements, percentage of top 5% of earners who are women and other employee data. The report also included equality monitoring of the workforce profile, including breakdowns by race/ethnicity, gender, disability and age.
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| It was reported that Workforce Monitoring would next be reported to the Committee in June 2009 and that this would cover the period 1 April 2008 - 31 March 2009.
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| Members discussed a number of issues including types of sickness absence, the profile of the Council's workforce, exit interviews and the workforce census. |
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| | > Workforce Monitoring (pdf file 271.0kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | | (1) | The Committee noted the report and asked that the following information be included in future workforce monitoring reports:
(i) the top five reasons for sickness absence
(ii) breakdown of male/female leavers.
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| | (2) | The Committee asked that the workforce census is worded sensitively to encourage staff to disclose disabilities.
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| 694 | DIVERSITY UPDATE |
| | Discussion: |
| | | This report provided details of the proposed actions to support the embedding of diversity and inclusivity into the culture of the Council. The report included an action plan which gave details of current activities and proposals for additional actions designed to create a holistic approach to changing the culture in a positive way.
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| Members discussed a number of issues including whether Trades Unions would be consulted on the key actions, ensuring links to e-learning was available to staff without computers, training for managers on disabilities, and the new reward and recognition scheme. The Assistant Director, Organisational Services, clarified that the trades unions would be consulted on the proposals for the final action plan.
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| | > Diversity Update (pdf file 149.7kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | The Committee noted the report and supported the follow up action as set out in the report. |
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| 695 | LEADERSHIP UPDATE |
| | Discussion: |
| | | This report provided details of actions to support embedding the leadership values and the emerging organisational culture. It was noted that the Council had begun a programme of leadership and culture change through articulating a set of core values in relation to the organisational culture as well as establishing a set of core requirements for Directors, Assistant Directors and Service Managers. An action plan was included with the report which aimed to move these objectives forward.
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| Members discussed a number of issues including the new staff hotline, the Employee Communications Steering Group, and the new Vocationally Related Qualification (VRQ).
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| | > Leadership Update (pdf file 46.6kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | The Committee noted the report and supported the proposed action plan. |
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