Agenda and minutes
Venue: Council Chamber, Brent Town Hall, Forty Lane, Wembley, HA9 9HD. View directions
Contact: Gayle Fentiman, Democratic Services Officer 020 8937 4617, Email: gayle.fentiman@brent.gov.uk
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Declarations of personal and prejudicial interests Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, any relevant financial or other interest in the items on this agenda. Minutes: None made. |
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Minutes of the previous meeting PDF 113 KB Minutes: RESOLVED:-
that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 21 May 2012 be approved as an accurate record of the meeting. |
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Matters arising Minutes: None. |
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Deputations Minutes: None. |
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Market Factor Supplement Payment - Approved Mental Health Practitioners (AMHP's) PDF 130 KB The purpose of this report is to highlight the importance of paying AMPH the allowance of £1542 as a Market Factor Supplement Payment as set out in the attached business case. Minutes: The interim head of Human Resources, Cara Davani, informed the Committee that the Approved Mental Health Practitioners (AMHP’s) who worked in Brent Mental Health Services received a market factor supplement of £,1542. However the AMPH’s who worked in the Emergency Duty team and the Review Team did not receive this supplement. She stated that Brent had found it increasingly difficult to recruit into these two teams and that there had been several unsuccessful recruitment campaigns in the past two years. She added that by paying the supplement it would also help Brent to retain the ten members of staff who currently worked in the Emergency duty and Review teams.
After being questioned whether the supplement of £1,542 was subject to tax and National Insurance, Cara Davani stated that it was and that therefore she would amend paragraph 4 of the report to reflect this within the financial implications.
RESOLVED:
that the annual allowance of £1,542 be paid to all the Council’s AMPH’s as a Market Factor Supplement Payment. |
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Review of Employee Benefits PDF 106 KB This report provides General Purposes Committee with an updated position on where Brent is in respect of negotiations with trade unions on the harmonisation of terms and conditions of employment and the introduction of a core contract for all Council staff. The is the final phase of the employee benefits review work Minutes:
The interim Head of Human Resources, Cara Davani, explained to the Committee that the Employee Benefits Review was now in the third and final phase. The final phase involved moving all staff across to one, standardised, contract. She stated that after extensive negotiations with the Trade Unions, both unions were now in agreement with the Review. GMB had already balloted their members who had voted in favour of the review, and Unison were awaiting legal advice before balloting their members regarding the Review.
She then informed the Committee that all members of staff would work a 36 hour week under the new core contract. It had been calculated that this would affect around 500 members of staff. She also detailed that a working day would mean between 6am-10pm which would provide workers with greater flexibility and allow Brent to offer a better service to its customers. She also stated that the new contract would standardise night time working, weekend working, travel and subsistence, mileage rates and lump sum allowances.
The final phase would also include all staff members moving to the Outer London GLPC pay spine and all permanent staff being paid at least the London living wage. Schools were also being encouraged to ensure all their permanent staff were being paid at least London Living wage.
Cara Davani then explained that overtime payment was not being reviewed within this Employee Benefits Review as overtime arrangements had recently been altered quite significantly.
It was noted that most of the proposed changes would take effect from the 1 October 2012, however in order to reach a collective agreement it had been agreed that some of the changes would not be brought in until 1 April 2014.
Cara Davani concluded that these changes were estimated to cost the Council £135,000 this financial year however she stated, that the savings would far outweigh this initial cost.
It was explained that the increased productivity of all staff working 36 hours a week could not be quantified and that was therefore why it was noted as a notional saving within the report.
The question was raised as to why the Council would not be compensating staff who were expected to work at the weekends as working at the weekends impacted significantly on family life. Cara Davani explained that staff who worked a standard week of Monday to Friday would be paid additional money for working at the weekend. It was staff members who worked at the weekend as part of their normal working week who would be losing their weekend enhancement to ensure harmonisation.
J Moher thanked Cara Davani and HR for their comprehensive report. There was then a discussion regarding the Employee’s Joint Consultative Committee, a joint meeting between union representatives and councillors as employers attended by Human Resources representatives. J Moher expressed the view that a meeting of the Employee’s JCC should have been called to consider this Review to ensure that it was subject to proper scrutiny. He therefore proposed that ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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Appointments to Sub-Committees / Outside Bodies Minutes: None. |
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Any Other Urgent Business Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Democratic Services Manager or his representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 64. Minutes: None. |