Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Olga Kokkinis, UNISON; Bob Bundall, UNISON; Colin Priest, GMB and Chris Millington, GMB.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests in any item on the agenda

Councillor D Flude declared a personal interest being a retired member of Unison.

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a total period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the Committee on any matter relevant to the work of the Committee.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers.

Members of the public should provide 3 clear working days notice, in writing, if they wish to ask a question at the meeting, in order for an informed answer to be given. It is not required to give notice of the intention to make use of public speaking provision, however, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours notice is encouraged.

There were no members of the public present.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 7 January 2010 as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 7 January 2010 be approved as a correct record.

To consider a report on the progress with Human Resource Issues.

The Head of Human Resources & Organisational Development, aided by the HR Strategic Policy Manager, the Health & Safety Officer and the Workforce Development & Capacity Manager, presented a report which provided a general update on Human Resource issues, including Health & Safety, Workforce Development, Organisational Change, HR Delivery and HR Policy & Reward.

Twenty seven Health & Safety Policy and Guidance documents were now available on the CEntrant and further documents were undergoing development and consultation.  The Committee was asked to approve documents relating to Lone Working and Manual Handling (Non Schools), which had been discussed at the Corporate Health & Safety Forum as part of the consultation process. 

The HSE Inspector had visited in January 2010 and remained pleased with the Council’s management of Hand Arm Vibration and would not be reviewing the Council's procedures again until January 2011.    An Inspector would be visiting later in the month to discuss ‘Hard Facilities Management’ arrangements, along with Waste & Recycling and with a special emphasis on ‘Task and Finish’. The Chairman asked to be kept informed of the outcomes, which would be reported to the Committee in due course.

The Council had signed up to the Backing Young People national campaign. Work was underway to recruit twenty five new Apprentices and three graduates from the national graduate development programme. It was also proposed to offer work experience to a number of young people at school/college across the Borough and to offer short term internships to unemployed people through the future jobs fund.  

A corporate induction programme was being developed and would include a welcome leaflet, an induction checklist to cover corporate information/polices and a half day workshop within 3 months of starting.  The Union representatives requested that details of the trade union be included in the information provided to new starters. 

RESOLVED:

(1)       The report be noted.

(2)       The Lone Working Policy and Manual Handling (Non Schools) Policy be approved.

The reports relating to the remaining items on the agenda have been withheld from public circulation and deposit pursuant to Section 100(B)(2) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that the matters may be determined with the press and public excluded.

The Committee may decide that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items pursuant to Section 100(A)4 of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 and public interest would not be served in publishing the information.

RESOLVED: 

That the public and press be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items pursuant to Section 100(A)4 of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that they involved the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 4 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 and public interest would not be served in publishing the information.

• Workforce Change
• National Pay Award

The Trade Unions representatives raised issued relating to the following matters:

• Workforce Change
• National Pay Award