Agenda and minutes

Councillor Ibison was elected as the Chair of the Employment and Appeals Committee for the Municipal Year 2023/24.

Councillor Birch was elected as the Vice Chair of the Employment and Appeals Committee for the Municipal Year 2023/24.

Members will disclose any pecuniary and any other significant interests they may have in relation to the matters to be considered at this meeting.

None.

To confirm as a correct record, the minutes of the previous meeting of the Employment and Appeals Committee held on Monday 20 February 2023.

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 February 2023 were confirmed as a correct record.  

The Human Resources Manager will provide members with a short verbal introduction to the Employment and Appeals Committee.

The Terms of Reference for the Committee can be found at Part 2.08 of the Council’s Constitution and is available here.

Jane Collier, Human Resources Manager, welcomed the new members of the Employment and Appeals Committee and explained the committee's responsibilities.

Jane added that members may also be required to consider appeals against dismissal and that future training would be offered to members of the committee. This would also be open to other councillors to participate. She emphasised the importance of the committee's attendance at appeals panel training.

Report of the Human Resources Manager to present to the Employment and Appeals Committee additions and amendments to Human Resource Policies.

The Human Resources Manager and Deputy Monitoring Officer, Jane Collier, submitted a report presenting four policies and procedures that had been amended.

Jane introduced the report and provided members with a brief overview of the policies. She stated that there would normally be a couple of additional policies for approval, but the consequences of Covid-19 had impacted the three-year policy review cycle.

Jane introduced the policy and explained that there had been minor amendments made throughout this policy.

In response to a question regarding an employee raising a grievance, Jane explained that the Grievance Policy was replaced with the Resolution Policy. She added that this policy encouraged informal resolutions, in which the individual would attempt to resolve the issue before submitting a request for resolution. She also stated that the requirement for a formal resolution meeting was infrequent.

The Chair questioned the minor changes made to the policy. Jane explained that there were minor amendments made such as changes to titles. She added that at 6.2.2 of the policy it had been added that if the matter was considered as serious enough then a formal meeting would be carried out from the outset.

Jane responded to a question regarding the number of employees at Wyre Council.

Jane introduced the policy and added that there was no amendments made.

The committee welcomed this policy. Jane assured members that this policy was in line with other local authorities. 

Jane introduced this policy. She added that Wyre Council was committed to supporting the armed forces.

In response to a question, Jane clarified that the policy was eligible for applicants whose most recent long term substantive employer was the Armed Forces.

Marc Whittaker, Senior Human Resources Advisor, reassured members that Human Resources liaised with the MOD’s Career Transition Partnership (CTP) Right Job website and ensured that Wyre Council vacancies were listed on this website.

It was questioned whether this policy was available for Armed Forces civilians. Marc confirmed that this policy was for Armed Forces Personnel only.

Jane Collier responded to several questions and comments regarding the following topics:

·         Recruitment issues and the use of social media for job vacancy advertisement

·         Pay line

·         Exit interviews

·         Staff retention

Jane introduced this policy and explained that this had also reviewed by the council’s Communications Team.

Members asked questions regarding the following topics:

·         Staff surveys

·         Home/hybrid working

·         Staff productivity

·         The 4-day working week

The committee approved each of the following Human Resources policies and arrangements:

-       Resolution Policy

-       Reservists Policy

-       Veteran Guaranteed Interview Scheme

-       Social Media Policy