Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room A - County Hall, Llandrindod Wells, Powys. View directions

Contact: Steve Boyd  Email: steve.boyd@powys.gov.uk 01597 826374

Items
No. Item

EAC1- 2015

Election of Chair

To elect a Chair for the ensuing year.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that County Councillor John Morris be elected Chair for the ensuing year.

 

 

EAC2- 2015

Election of Vice Chair

To elect a Vice Chair for the ensuing year.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that County Councillor Michael Williams be elected Vice Chair for the ensuing year.

 

 

EAC3- 2015

Minutes pdf icon PDF 14 KB

To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of the last meeting held on 27th February 2015 as a correct record.

Minutes:

 

The Chair was authorised to sign the minutes of the meeting held on 27th February 2015 as a correct record.

 

EAC4- 2015

Declarations of Interest

To receive any declarations of interest from Members relating to items to be considered on the agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest reported.

 

EAC5- 2015

Employment Appeals Update

To review recent employment appeals.

Minutes:

Members gave feedback on their recent experiences of taking part in appeals panels. Amongst the points raised were

 

·         Investigating officers need to sign and date reports.

·         Investigating officers need to interview appellants.

·         Contact with appellants should be formal.

·         Staff need training on the Code of Conduct.

·         HR staff dealing with appeals need to work in areas where confidential information cannot be overheard.

·         Need for clarity on whether appellants can be consulted by a solicitor.

·         Suspended staff need to be kept updated on the progress of their cases.

·         Members who have sat on appeals hearings should be invited to the Employment Tribunal if the case is referred there. 

 

The Account Manager thanked Members for their feedback and agreed to implement their suggestions where possible.

 

EAC6- 2015

Update on Case Load

To receive a verbal update on case load.

Minutes:

Details of the current case load, which broke down the number of cases per department and the types of cases, were circulated. The Committee was pleased to note that the number of cases which went to appeal had been greatly reduced. There had been 186 cases  in the current year, 117 of which had been closed. The figures included one case that HR had been asked to undertake for Powys Teaching Health Board.

 

24 of the cases related to sickness absence. Members were advised that the current average sickness rate was 7.6 days per member of staff against the Council’s target of 8 days. The aim was to reduce this to 6.5 days. The Account Manager was asked to show the figures as a percentage of staff in the directorates concerned.

 

He also agreed to make available the costs of those staff suspended on full pay. He confirmed that the cases of suspended staff was reviewed on a monthly basis.

 

EAC7- 2015

Employment Law Update pdf icon PDF 106 KB

To receive an update on employment law.

Minutes:

The Solicitor to the Council briefed the Committee on a number of examples of recent employment case law. One of the cases highlighted was the ruling by the European Court of Justice that travel time for mobile workers with no mobile to their first appointment of the day, and from their last appointment, is 'working time'.

 

EAC8- 2015

Policy Review Update and Timetable

To receive a verbal report on the policy review update.

Minutes:

The Account Manager explained that the existing policies were being reviewed with a view to streamlining and standardising them. He was asked to check the process for signing policies off. The Accounts Manager agreed to speak to the Schools Service about inviting a member of the Governors’ Consultative Body to the Employment Policy Forum.

 

EAC9- 2015

HR Service Objectives

To receive an oral update from the Head of Service.

Minutes:

The Account Manager outlined the objectives for the Human Resources team for the period to 2018.

 

It was agreed that there would be a training session on disciplinary policy arranged for the next meeting.