The Minutes of the meetings held on 14 July 2022 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Chief Executive submitted the proceedings of the Local Joint Forum meeting held on 11 October 2022.

The Assistant Director of HR and Organisational Development submitted a report, presenting two Employment Policies which had been reviewed jointly and agreed with the Joint Trade Unions.  The following documents were attached to the report:

The report explained that the Employment Stability Agreement had not been reviewed since 2011 and had been updated to reflect current best practice and process.  The Trade Union Facilities Agreement had not been reviewed since 2009 and the updated document include current job titles and amendments to the corporate policy template.  The Annual Leave Policy had been amended following the national agreement for Local Government Services staff which had been confirmed on 2 November 2022.  This included one additional day’s annual leave, regardless of current entitlement or length of service for all relevant staff from April 2023.  The current policy would continue to apply until 31 March 2023.

The report explained that all employment policies had now been reviewed by the HR and Organisational Development team, following consultation and negotiation with the Joint Trade Unions.  A communications plan was in place to communicate the revised policies to managers and employees.

Resolved:

(1)        That the following revised HR policies, as set out in in Appendices A, B and C to the report, be approved:

·       Employment Stability Agreement;

·       Trade Union Facilities Agreement;

·       Annual Leave Policy;

(2)        That the Equality Impact Assessment of the policy reviews be noted, as set out in Appendix D to the report.

At this point, the following motion will be moved by the Chair:

“That, pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) members of the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following item on the agenda, as it is likely that there would be disclosure of exempt information as defined in the relevant Paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A (as amended) of that Act”

Resolved:

That pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) members of the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following items, as it was likely that there would be disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A (as amended) to that Act.

The Assistant Director of HR and Organisational Development submitted a report, which provided a monitoring statement of all termination costs that had been incurred due to employees leaving the Council on either early retirement or redundancy grounds between 1 April 2022 and 30 September 2022.  There had been no early retirements on the grounds of efficiency during this period.  Termination costs that had been incurred due to employees leaving the Council on redundancy grounds between 1 October 2021 and 31 March 2021 were attached to the report at Appendix 1.  The report also included a summary of Special Severance Payments made within the same period and details were attached at Appendix 2 to the report.

Resolved

(1)                   That it be noted that the total termination costs incurred due to employees leaving the Council on redundancy grounds between 1 April 2022 and 30 September 2022 was £499,080;

(2)                   That it be noted that the total Special Severance Payments incurred between 1 April 2022 and 30 September 2022 was £95,207.

(Exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2).