Agenda item
Proposed Changes to the Disciplinary Procedure
At its meeting on 13 September 2012, the General Purposes Committee considered a recommendation to update the Council's Disciplinary Policy to provide that appeals against dismissal for Gross Misconduct should be heard by a senior officer and not a member Committee. The trade unions requested that this decision be tabled as an item at the Employees’ Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) for discussion. As a result of that meeting, the JCC requested that the General Purposes Committee consider the representations that were made to it by the unions and this report sets out the issues raised at that meeting for members’ further consideration.
Minutes:
Cara Davani (Assistant Director of People and Development) presented a report to the committee which set out proposed changes to the Disciplinary Procedure in respect of appeals against dismissal for gross misconduct. The committee had previously received a report on this issue at its meeting on 13 September 2012. This report had recommended that appeals against dismissal for gross misconduct be heard by a senior officer and not a member panel. The committee had deferred further consideration of the draft policy until the proposals had been considered at the forthcoming meeting of the Employees’ Joint Consultative Committee (JCC).
Cara Davani explained that the meeting of the Employees’ JCC had been held on 26 November 2012 and the objections raised by the Trade Unions were summarised in the report before the committee. The Trade Unions had argued that the proposed changes to the policy amounted to an attack on employee rights, noting that statistically, appeals to members were more likely to be successful than appeals to senior officers. It was also considered that the proposed changes should be applied to all members of staff equally where possible and therefore, those at Assistant Director level should not be excluded from the senior officer determined appeals process, as the original proposal had suggested. A number of concerns had also been raised by members at the Employees’ JCC. In view of these concerns and the position of the Trade Unions, it was proposed that if the committee did not wish to proceed with the original proposal, it may wish to consider a compromise solution of a 12 month pilot scheme. The pilot scheme would carry forward the proposal that senior officers would be responsible for determining appeals against dismissal for gross misconduct but would also include a measure to allow appellants to make a case that their appeal should be heard by a member panel. The Assistant Director People and Development would be responsible for considering such requests. After the pilot had been completed a further report would be submitted to the committee assessing the success of the scheme.
During the subsequent discussion, members acknowledged the concerns raised by the Trade Unions and members at the meeting of the Employees’ JCC. It was commented that the recent changes to the employment tribunal process provided an important context to the decision before the committee but it was also accepted that there was a move within local government towards officer determined appeals processes. Turning to the proposed pilot scheme, members sought clarity on how it would be assessed to evidence whether full and fair judgements had been made. Members also noted the concerns expressed regarding the administration of the appeals process and the issues which could lead to delay; it was agreed that a review of this should be undertaken.
Responding to members’ comments Cara Davani agreed that a review of the administration of the appeals process would be held. With regard to the pilot scheme, on its completion an analysis would be conducted for the year of its operation and presented to the committee in a report by the end of March 2014.
Councillor Cheese commented that he agreed with the position of the Trade Unions and felt that the existing system for considering appeals against dismissal for gross misconduct was sufficient and should remain.
RESOLVED:
(i) that the concerns raised at the Employees’ Joint Consultative Committee meeting held on 26 November 2012 be noted;
(ii) that a pilot scheme be established to run for a period of 12 months, under which appeals against dismissal for gross misconduct will be heard by senior officers, except where an application for the appeal to be heard by a member Panel has been made and agreed to by the Assistant Director of People and Development;
(iii) that under the terms of the pilot scheme, appeals against dismissal for gross misconduct submitted by Assistant Directors be heard by senior officers.
Supporting documents: