Issue - meetings
Alternative Models of Employee Appeals Sub-Committee
Meeting: 23/02/2021 - General Purposes Committee (Item 4)
4 Alternative Models of Employee Appeals Sub-Committee PDF 252 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Amanda Harcus, Divisional Director of HR, introduced the report by explaining that the report was asking Members to change the constitutional arrangements for the Employee Appeals Committee to refer dismissal appeals to an Officer panel as set out in the report.
Ms Harcus highlighted the increasing importance that was needed to be given to performance management and to individual senior officers taking accountability for their actions and in this regard it was being suggested that senior officers should be expected to hear final appeals in all staffing matters and take account of their decision-making and that includes explaining that rationale for either overturning a dismissal or for upholding a dismissal in full. It was noted that the current practise was for elected members to consider appeals for staff dismissals and this was thought to sometimes create a misperceptionbetween the role of members and role of officers.
It was noted that there were different practises across the London boroughs and, LBTH was only one of 13 boroughs that continues to have Members involved in dismissal appeals, whereas 20 other boroughs had removed Members from their appeal processes.
Ms Harcus briefly explained alternative models for the appeals process; Senior Management Panels, where a Member is invited to participate in an advisory capacity to oversee and scrutinise and be supported by the management panel; inviting a member of the Trade Union as an observer, however it was noted that Tower Hamlets trade unions had indicated they were not in favour of this option as Trade Union staff may be perceived as being bias towards management if a desired outcome is not reached.
Ms Harcus stated that having consulted with the Trade Unions on these changes, it was reasonable to say that the Trade Unions main concerns were around ensuring things were fair and whether management had followed due process internally. It was believed that the Council operates much more transparently then perhaps the organisation had historically done and was of the view that all staff are treated fairly and consistently, when it comes to managing grievances hearing disciplinaries or managing capability.
At the request of the Chair, Mr John McLoughlin, speaking on behalf of the Joint Trade Unions addressed the Committee and explained that the report recommended a change to the constitution in regards to staff working for the council and this matter was regarded as very important. He then highlighted the following;
· Strongly believed that Councillors had a relatively small but important role in staffing issues, because the role of the Councillors was not just to set policies but also to have some oversight of how those policies work in practice.
· That there been a small number of dismissals appeals that have been referred to Members, a total of 23 in the last 3 years. The vast majority of dismissals are due to redundancy and redeployment which are excluded from the Members appeals process.
· There were concerns over the lack of equalities, as a widespread perception and a concern that where ... view the full minutes text for item 4