Issue - meetings

The Chief Executive, Andrew Blake-Herbert addressed the committee in respect of the Terms and Conditions Review and introduced the report of Julian Sivill, Strategic Human Resources Partner.

The Terms and Conditions Review has been going on for a while and a great deal of time has been spent trying to secure the best possible solution for all Havering Employees.  During this time the diligence of the trade unions, who have worked with the Council to make sure the proposals were as fair, reasonable and consistent as possible, and the support and professionalism of our colleagues has been very much appreciated.

The purpose of the review was twofold:

1.     To identify and replace those existing Terms and Conditions (T&C’s) that were inconsistent, outdated or did not assist in the delivery of services, and

2.     To develop a set of T&C’s that are modern and more fitting to the Council’s business needs whilst achieving the Council’s medium term financial plan to deliver savings of £0.5 million in 2017/18.

A provisional set of proposals was received by the Committee in August 2016 which was followed by extensive employee consultation the procedure for which is set out in detail in paragraphs 10 to 21 of the report.

It was fully appreciated that at the heart of this process were individuals and families who would have an impact on their take home pay whilst navigating a way to ensure Havering run a successful and prosperous Council which meets the needs of all its residents.  T&C’s are crucial to staff morale, motivation and productivity.

A further update on progress was considered by the Governance Committee in January, 2017. It was necessary to try and reach a Collective Agreement and the Trade Unions agreed to ballot staff.

The Council was delighted to announce to the Committee that a Collective Agreement had been reached following confirmation by the trade unions today.

As a result of this, Recommendation 3 in the report was withdrawn and removed.

Julian Sivill addressed the Committee and talked through the detail of the report.  Following the job evaluation and appeals process Job Evaluation Outcomes were modelled and an Equalities Impact Analysis was carried out. 

Tables in the report denote the impact on pay.  Across the organisation in relation to basic pay, 77% of employees would see either no change in basic pay or a slight increase.  In relation to the Teaching Assistant 2 roles the impact is denoted in table 2 on page 8 of the agenda pack.  Across the organisation, the Post Consultation Proposals result in 69.9% of employees either seeing no change in their contractual pay or will see an increase.

The main conclusions of the Equalities Analysis were that:

·       No one group of people with a protected characteristic is significantly adversely affected as a result of the Council’s proposals, and

·       The proposals will have a positive impact on the Gender Pay Gap.

Throughout the consultation period the Council’s aim was to try and reach a Collective Agreement.  It  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2