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 5 (Redundancy), as a member of the retired section of UNISON and the retired section of Unite (TGWU / ACTS sections).

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

To consider the exclusion of the press and public from the meeting during consideration of the annexes to Agenda Item 5 (Redundancy), on the grounds that they contain information relating to individuals and the financial affairs of particular persons.  This information is classed as exempt under paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Schedule 12A to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as revised by The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006).

RESOLVED: That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the annexes to agenda item 5 (Redundancy), on the grounds that they contain information relating to individuals and the financial affairs of particular persons, which is classed as exempt under paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Schedule 12A to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as revised by The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006).

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of the Staffing Matters & Urgency Committee held on 7 March 2011.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting of the Staffing Matters & Urgency Committee held on 7 March 2011 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 18 March 2011.

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

This report advises Members of the expenditure associated with the proposed dismissal of a number of employees on the grounds of redundancy.  Exempt annexes containing details of the individual cases will be circulated to Members at the meeting.

Members considered a report which informed them of the expenditure associated with the proposed dismissal of a number of employees on the grounds of redundancy.

Details of the 32 individual employees, contained within ten business cases, were circulated at the meeting as exempt annexes to the report.  Of these, 21 related to voluntary redundancies, ten to compulsory redundancies and one to a fixed-term contract coming to a close.

During their discussion, Members queried the pension costs reportedly associated with three of the six voluntary redundancies set out in Annex D.  They requested that further details on all six of these be provided before the redundancies were approved.  It was also requested that the information set out in the business cases supplied to the Committee be standardised in future, to ensure consistency and to enable Members to have a clear view of all the costs involved.

RESOLVED: (i)         That the expenditure associated with the proposed dismissal of the employees on the grounds of redundancy, as detailed in the annexes, be noted.

REASON:      So that Members have an overview of the expenditure.

                        (ii)        That the further information requested in respect of Annex D be provided by e-mail to Members and acknowledged by them before 5pm today (21^st March).

REASON:      To ensure that Members are satisfied with the accuracy of the costs in respect of these particular cases.