Agenda item

RESOLVED:

(1)  That a report on employee relations be considered at a later meeting of the committee, providing information on the council’s process for resolving employment disputes; the council’s phased return to work policy; the updating of the council’s HR policies, and their conformity with ACAS guidelines; the numbers of long-term agency staff; the employment profile of schools in Lewisham; the proportion of non-voluntary leavers that are dismissals and the different categories of dismissal; and the numbers of staff who take shared parental leave.

(2)  That representatives from all three staff unions be invited to attend the meeting for this item to contribute to the discussion.

Adam Bowles, Director of Organisational Development & Human Resources presented a report providing information on key trends in the Council’s workforce. The following key points were noted:

6.1      There was a slight increase in redundancies. In terms of both gender and ethnicity, the numbers were broadly similar to the workforce profile.

6.2      42.9% of the Council’s workforce is BAME. This broadly reflects the workforce across London Councils, although it is slightly below the borough profile based on the 2011 census.

6.3      Overall, the BAME workforce increased 1.2% from the previous year.

6.4      A BAME staff forum is expected to be set up in the coming months. There is already a LGBT+ forum and a Disabled forum.

6.5      There is a gender pay gap of 10.6% in favour of women. Some of this is due to the profile of the workforce: the council has a relatively large manual workforce, which tends to be male, and a large number of social workers, which tend to be female.

6.6      There is good representation of women at a senior level.

6.7      4.2% of the workforce declared that they consider themselves to have a disability. This broadly reflects the rate across London Councils.

6.8      More job applicants were from women (58.8%) and more women were appointed (68.7%).

6.9      In terms of ethnicity, there was a drop off between applicants (60%) and those interviewed (53.3%), but a similar proportion move from interview to appointment.

6.10   Work is being carried out to investigate the drop off between application and interview. This will include trialling anonymised applicant CVs in some areas.

6.11   Of the workforce promoted, 72% were women, which is higher that the female percentage workforce rate of 61.2%.

6.12   41.5% of promoted employees were BAME, this is slightly lower than the BAME workforce rate of 42.9%.

6.13   100% of those that applied for promotion and who declared that they had a disability were successful in being promoted.

The Chair invited questions from the committee. A discussion followed in which the following points were made:

6.14   Officers confirmed that the employment profile excludes school staff and agreed to look into providing further information on the profile of the school workforce.

6.15   There have been some compulsory redundancies. The council always tries to redeploy people and part-time working can be discussed when jobs are advertised.

6.16   The committee queried what other categories of non-voluntary leavers there are other than dismissal. Officers agreed to provide a breakdown.

6.17   Part-time working is encouraged. The council is signing up to be a Timewise employer and offers a range of flexible working options.

6.18   The committee asked if there are any figures on how many people take shared parental leave. Officers agreed to look this up.

6.19   The committee queried if the council monitors the rates of promotion and leavers when people come back from parental leave. Officers confirmed that they do not, but agreed to carry out some work to feed into next year’s report.

6.20   The committee queried rates of promotion in relation to LGBT. Officers noted that the figures on this were too small to report without possibly identifying individuals.

Gary Cummins, Unite the Union representative, presented information on some of the key successes, challenges, and concerns that union members had working for the council. The following key points were noted:

6.21   The key challenge is how to continue providing a high level of service to residents given that the council has fewer people and less money.

6.22   There’s also concern about the conformity of council polices to ACAS guidance; the consistent application of flexible working; the appropriateness of some referrals to occupational health and the consistency of the weighting between GP and Occupational Health reports. There was also concern about the use of annual leave during a phased return to work following a period of long-term absence.

6.23   It was welcome that a number of agency workers had been taken on full time, but there was concern that there are still some agency workers with long-term service.

6.24   It was also noted that there is concern among BAME members about progressing through the organisation.

The Chair invited questions from the committee. A discussion followed in which the following points were made:

6.25   The committee noted the concerns among BAME employees about career progression and asked if measures such as the appointment as Royston John as the council’s adviser on BAME career progression are making a difference for BAME employees. 

6.26   The committee heard that the union’s equalities officer is in process of arranging to meet with members to begin a conversation on measures such as this.

6.27   It was noted that there is a formal structure for trade unions and senior staff to resolve disputes. There are quarterly directorate meetings and an organisational meeting chaired by Director of Resources.

6.28   If there are disputes that can’t be settled through this process they can be escalated to the works council, which is cabinet member-led.

6.29   It was noted that some trade unions refuse to attend the works council as they feel that it should be chaired by the Council’s Chief Executive.

6.30   Although all the Council’s policies comply with legislation, some of the policies and timeframes within them do not completely follow ACAS guidance.

6.31   The committee asked about the training council managers receive on HR policies. Officers noted that managers are expected to read HR policies as part of their induction process.

6.32   Officers also noted that the council works well with the trade unions and that council employees are encouraged to speak to their trade unions. The Head of Organisational Development and Human Resources noted that the council’s existing consultation and negotiation agreed machinery was the appropriate place for union negotiations to be carried out, where both parties had the opportunity to fully present, discuss and understand the issues. This meeting was not the appropriate venue for union negotiations but did present an opportunity for Members to scrutinise relevant policies.

6.33   The committee thanked officers and the union representative for their presentations.

RESOLVED:

(1)  That a report on employee relations be considered at a later meeting of the committee, providing information on the council’s process for resolving employment disputes; the council’s phased return to work policy; the updating of the council’s HR policies, the relationship between ACAS guidance and legislation; the numbers of long-term agency staff; the employment profile of schools in Lewisham; the proportion of non-voluntary leavers that are dismissals and the different categories of dismissal; and the numbers of staff who take shared parental leave.

(2)  That representatives from all three staff unions be invited to attend the meeting for this item to contribute to the discussion.