124 Shared Services - Employment Protocols PDF 131 KB
The Committee will consider the shared service Employment Protocols developed jointly with the London Borough of Waltham Forest and the unions to provide a framework for managing the employment issues that will arise from providing services jointly by two or more London boroughs.
Attached to the report, for ease of reference, are the Employeeside comments on the Shared services report . Legal services have responded to the points raised about the secondment agreements and these are also attached to this paper.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The committee were asked to consider the set of shared service Employment protocols developed jointly with the London Borough of Waltham Forest and the unions to provide a framework for managing the employment issues that will arise from providing services jointly by two or more London boroughs.
Sean Fox, Employeeside Secretary, addressed the meeting and explained that the dialogue between the council and the unions about the employment protocols had been helpful and constructive. There were concerns about the proposed secondment agreement by the unions and these were detailed at appendix D (page 187-189 of the report pack). In summary these were:
The Assistant Chief Executive responded to the concerns raised and agreed that they would be considered and taken forward by Human Resources. Although a legally compiled document maybe required for signing by the employee when agreeing to the secondment arrangement, this did not preclude attaching an additional document for the employee to read which set out in plain English its terms and implications.
In relation to the concern raised about the timescales around the secondment agreement, it was expected that over time and as the number of shared service agreements increased the council would inevitably consider the model for employing staff in a shared service. Therefore this was an evolving area subject to change. In terms of recent secondment agreements which were expected to last 12 months or more the ACE agreed to consider these cases, seek legal advice and complete a risk assessment on their current position.
Although the secondment agreement was an industry standard document, the committee commented that this should not preclude it from being understandable and more openly written.
RESOLVED