Agenda and minutes

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Members:

To receive declarations of personal or prejudicial interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Committee, Sub Committee, Panel or Forum;

(b)               all other Members present in any part of the room or chamber.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

Agenda Item 4 – Employees’ Side Report on Trade Waste

Agenda Item 5 – Information Report – Response to Employees’ Side Report on Trade Waste

Councillor Bob Currie declared a personal interest in that he was a paid-up member of Unison and his son worked for the Council.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Keith Ferry declared a personal interest in that he was a member of the GMB Union.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Graham Henson declared a personal interest in that he was a member of the Communication Workers Union and his cousin worked for the Council.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

To receive deputations (if any) under the provisions of Executive Procedure Rule 50 (Part 4D of the Constitution).

RESOLVED:  To note that no deputations had been received.

Report from the Employees’ Side.

The Forum received a report from Unison relating to its concerns regarding the position of Joint Secretary.  The three key issues raised by Unison involved:

·                     that the GMB Union had not reciprocated an agreement with Unison in that Unison had offered GMB one of their facility days, during the period Unison took the role of Joint Secretary;

·                     Unison had been requested to provide information regarding their membership figures, which it wished to be confirmed had also been requested from the GMB union;

·                     the facilitation of the funding of the Joint Secretary position.

In presenting the item a member of Unison raised the following points:

·                     there had been no confirmation on whether membership figures had also been requested from GMB;

·                     Unison had funded the Joint Secretary position for 4 months because the current Joint Secretary had her substantive position recruited to.  This had provided some security for the current Joint Secretary to seek other employment.  Financial information was available to show the costs for these 4 months.  There were queries on where the funding identified for this position had been allocated, given an underspend in the corporately held trade union facility time budget in the previous year.

During the discussion on this item, Members of the Forum raised a number of issues which were responded to by officers as follows:

·                     officers did not feel the underspend in 2010/11, had impacted negatively on Unison;

·                     it was Unison’s decision to continue funding the Joint Secretary position.  A number of discussions had been held with Unison on this arrangement and no request was made at the time for funding in relation to this;

·                     any claim for additional costs incurred would be considered, but this was not to be taken as acceptance for funding these costs.  It also had to be noted that there was no provision within the current budget to meet any claim from the previous year’s budget;

·                     the issue of the reciprocation of agreement in offering facility days to be transferred was solely an issue for the 2 unions.  It was not an issue that Councillors or the Forum should engage in.  Members of the Forum concurred with this view;

·                     there had been no agreement made by the unions on who would assume the Joint Secretary role after a representative of Unison had assumed the position;

·                     the reason for requesting membership figures from the unions was to ensure that the relevant budget was allocated fairly.  Up to date figures were required.  Neither union had provide these figures and a formal request was made by the officers to provide these.  The figures did include staff at schools as technically they were employees of the Council;

·                     it was a matter for the Joint Secretary to give an assurance that the role would be used purely for 5 days on the Better Deal for Residents Programme.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.