Agenda and minutes

At this point, Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda. 

Cllr Fraser declared a personal interest in agenda item 4 (Exit and Pension Discretions), as a member of the retired sections of UNISON and Unite (TGWU/ACTS sections).

Cllr Alexander declared a personal interest in agenda item 4, as a member of the GMB.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of the Staffing Matters & Urgency Committee held on 18 January 2010.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the Staffing Matters & Urgency Committee held on 18 January 2010 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Committee’s remit can do so.  The deadline for registering is 5.00 pm on Friday, 1 October 2010.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report seeks approval to make a number of amendments to the way the Council exercises its exit and pension discretions, to ensure they are fit for purpose for use in a rapidly changing organisation and to enable exit costs to be proactively managed

Members considered a report which sought approval to make a number of amendments to the way in which the Council exercised its exit and pension discretions, to ensure these were fit for purpose and to enable exit costs to be proactively managed.  The proposals were supported by the Executive, who had considered the report at their meeting on 21 September 2010.  A subsequent call-in of the Executive’s decision had resulted in the original decision being endorsed by the Scrutiny Management Committee (Calling In) on 27 September.

The Council’s current policy, as summarised in Annex 1 to the report, was to exercise its discretions to enhance statutory redundancy and early retirement provisions only in unusual or exceptional circumstances.  This had resulted in a rigid system, under which applications were considered on an individual basis rather than in the wider business context.  Retaining the current process (Option 1) was therefore not recommended. 

An proposed alternative approach (Option 2), to allow flexible application of the provisions within an overarching governance framework, was outlined in paragraphs 18 to 24 of the report.  It included, among other things:

• Use of continuous, rather than aggregate, local government service in calculating redundancy pay, and an additional discretionary element
• More use of efficiency retirements in order to facilitate change
• A revised appeals panel, chaired by the Chief Executive

The revised process, if adopted, would not apply to chief officers.  Consultation on the changes had taken place with UNISON and the GMB, whose views were presented in paragraphs 30 to 44 of the report.

RESOLVED: (i)         That Option 2 be approved and the existing approach to exit provisions and pension discretions be amended, allowing flexible application within an overarching governance framework.¹

REASON:      So that the Council’s redundancy policy and pension discretions can be exercised in a flexible way, to achieve its organisational change objectives.

(ii)               That the Staffing and Urgency Committee receive details for all proposed redundancies at future meetings with all relevant paperwork, with personal information being handed out at the start of the meeting and returned at the end of the meeting.²

REASON:      To address the concerns raised by Members who had called in the Executive decision, regarding the need for closer Member scrutiny of redundancy payments.