Agenda and minutes

To receive the Minutes of the meeting held on 29 July 2010.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 29 July 2010 were submitted. 

It was noted that in relation to Minute 193 (Local Joint Panel – Minutes of the meeting held on 17 June 2010), Human Resources Committee had raised concerns about the Terms of Reference for Local Joint Panel, specifically how minor disagreements were dealt with and had requested that these concerns be forwarded to Audit Committee for inclusion in the Annual Governance Statement.  The Director of Internal Services clarified that it was not a request that Audit Committee should review the Terms of Reference, but rather it was for Human Resources and Unison to ensure the Terms of Reference were fit for purpose and in particular to consider ways of reaching agreement where minor disagreements arose.  He confirmed that this issue was already in hand.

RESOLVED – that the Minutes of the meeting held on 29 July 2010 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Interim Head of People and Organisational Services submitted a report regarding the proposed removal of the Default Retirement Age (DRA) of 65 which was introduced in 2006.  Removal of the DRA would be effective from April 2011.  The report now submitted explained the implementation and transitional arrangements and the potential implications for staff savings based on anticipated retirements within the context of the Medium Term Financial Plan.

In response to concerns raised by Councillor J O Ranger regarding the possibility of the new arrangements benefitting staff who might request to work beyond 65 and subsequently seek to be made redundant, Officers explained that advice had been taken and that it was beneficial for the Council to have staff on a permanent contract when working beyond 65.  The Director of Internal Services explained the payment structure in relation to redundancy payments.

The Committee supported the removal of the default retirement age and the draft consultation response as set out in the report now submitted.

RESOLVED – that the removal of the East Herts Retirement age from 6 April 2011 and the draft consultation response be approved.

The Interim Head of People and Organisational Services submitted a report detailing the turnover and sickness / absence statistics for the period 1 April – 30 September 2010.

The Committee was advised that the current turnover for the Council was 4.72% against a target of 12% and that the voluntary leaver’s rate was 3.06% against a target of 8%.

The Committee was further advised that short term sickness was 1.43 days against a target of 5 days and that the average long term sickness was 1.46 days against a target of 2.5 days.

Members were reminded that the Council’s Performance Development Review schemes ran on two cycles and that Revenues and Benefits in June/July had achieved an outturn of 97.78% for 2010.  The outturn for the rest of the Council following PDR in December /June and a six month review in June / July was 51.65%.

Councillor J O Ranger acknowledged the difficulties faced by the Council in relation to  achieving 100% target and of the need to continue to press on with PDRs, as they played a role in establishing changes to job content and in highlighting what training was needed.  The Director of Internal Services reminded Members that it had been an exceptional year because of the additional number of one to meetings in relation to the terms and conditions review.  The Interim Head of People and Organisational Services confirmed that terms and conditions meetings started around the same time as the PDR process but that Officers would continue to work with Managers to ensure that PDRs were undertaken.

Councillor C Woodward suggested that Officers in Revenues and Benefits should be congratulated for their efforts.  This was supported.

RESOLVED – that (A) the statistics in relation to turnover, long and short term absences be noted; and

(B)   Revenues and Benefits be congratulated on their efforts in achieving a 97.78 return on the PDRs.

(Members are asked to bring to the meeting a copy of the Local Joint Panel agenda for the meeting held on 16 September 2010).

The Minutes of the Local Joint Panel (LJP), meeting held on 16 September 2010 were submitted.

Councillor Wood, as Chairman of the LJP, said that at the last meeting, the Staff Side had requested that Council intervene in relation to the staff implications of the Emergency Budget proposals.  This issue had been dealt with at Council and that a specific form of wording had been agreed.  The Director of Internal Services stated that the LJP was the appropriate forum where the Council and Employees’ trade union representatives could raise concerns about the Council’s employment policies and their general application..  He stated that it was not appropriate for Members at the LJP or elsewhere to be perceived to become involved in the application of those policies in individual cases where the Constitution delegated such matters to the Chief Executive and Officers.

RESOLVED – that the Minutes of the Local Joint Panel meeting held on 16 September 2010 be received.