Representing Renfrewshire Council Management – Councillors J Harte, J McNaughtan, J Paterson and A Steel. 
  
Representing Trade Unions –M Ferguson (UNISON);  

Representing APT & C Staff –S Hicks and L Glover (UNISON) 

Representing Manual Workers –J McMenemy and G Young (GMB).

G McKinlay, Head of Schools (Childrens’ Services); F Carlin, Head of Planning and Housing Services and A Bennett, Housing Services Manager (Communities, Housing and Planning Services); D Gillies, Head of Facilities Management (Environment & Infrastructure); R Laouadi, HR Manager, R Cree, OD & Workforce Planning Manager, S Fanning, Principal HR Adviser (Health Safety and Absence) and P Shiach, Committee Services Officer (all Finance & Resources).

It was proposed and agreed that Councillor Steel chair the meeting. 
 
DECIDED:  That Councillor Steel chair the meeting. 

Councillor Begg, J Boylan (UNISON) and S McAllister (GMB).

There were no declarations of interest intimated prior to the commencement of the meeting.

There were submitted the minute of the previous meeting of the Joint Consultative Board: Non-Teaching held on 14 November and 12 December 2018.

DECIDED: That the Minutes be approved.

Under reference to item 8 of the Minute of the meeting of the Joint Consultative Board Non-Teaching held on 14 November 2018 the UNISON representatives expressed concern over the review of soft and hard facilities management. They indicated that there had been no clarity in terms of the process and that they had not been advised of any proposals in terms of Voluntary Redundancies /Voluntary Early Retirement (VR/VER).

The Head of Planning and Housing advised that discussions were on-going and that meetings had taken place between Communities, Housing and Planning Services and the trade unions on the issues raised but UNISON representatives had been unable to attend.

UNISON representatives expressed concern that the process and recognised procedures were not being followed and that the relevant documents had been requested but had not been received.

The Head of Planning and Housing indicated that consultations were being undertaken with staff who might be interested in VR/VER.

Following further discussion, the Convener proposed that all parties take steps to improve the relevant lines of communication. This was agreed.

DECIDED:

(a) That all parties take steps to improve lines of communication; and

(b) That the report be otherwise noted.

The UNISON representative expressed concern that despite a previous agreement that workers wearing their council badge could access facilities, they were being advised that this was no longer the case, and that some female workers had no access to facilities.   


The HR Manager advised that the issue had been raised at the last Liaison meeting with the relevant service which was reviewing the issue with a view to it being resolved.

DECIDED: That the information be noted.

The UNISON representative referred to meeting with management in 2017 to discuss a Scottish Government report, the main thrust of which had been medicines issued to children primarily by teaching support staff. It had been agreed that a review of this practice would be undertaken. However, the UNISON representative expressed concern that the review would take longer than had been originally envisaged. He indicated that staff issuing medication should be remunerated accordingly as these tasks did not form part of the support staffs’ contracts.

The Head of Schools stated that he welcomed ongoing engagement on the matter indicating that there was no delay but that the issue was one of a number which required to be tackled together.

The UNISON representative indicated that the issue with regard to the administration of medicines was the most urgent as staff felt that they were not adequately trained to undertake this task and did not have access to relevant files. He intimated that a meeting would be held with the relevant staff following the spring break to consider the matter further.

DECIDED: That the information be noted.  

There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to developments in relation to health, safety and wellbeing issues.  

The report detailed training undertaken, policies and guidance currently under review and indicated that in order to support the Healthy Working Lives Gold award a calendar of proposed awareness sessions and events had been planned for the year. Details of the topics included were detailed in the report. To support this, it was anticipated that the HWL group would meet to discuss the topics and the best route to communicate them. Thereafter the group would report to the Corporate Health and Safety Committee.

The report advised that the health and safety section continued to work closely with  (i) the risk and insurance section to identify accident causation type which could result in claims against the council; (ii) FAR, Property Services and the FM teams within Environment and Infrastructure to review the fire risk assessment for Renfrewshire House; and (iii) the Town Centres Team and other event organisers to ensure that there were safe and controlled events delivered.

The report intimated that that the Health and Safety had undertaken 136 High risk and 34 Low risk evaluations of contractor’s health and safety documentation when they had applied for contracts with Renfrewshire Council. Where the contractor had failed the evaluation process, the Health and Safety section had worked with procurement to offer further advice and guidance where appropriate.

The report detailed the work of the Health and Safety section in terms of responses to requests for Freedom of Information requests; delivery of bespoke training; and in supporting attendance activity. 

DECIDED: That the report be noted. 

There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to the number of grievances received. 
 
The report provided information on grievances at both the informal and formal stages indicating that there was a total of 12 grievances as at March 2019, which was an increase of two from the previous report considered by the Board. 
   
DECIDED:    That the report be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to the number of agency staff employed within the Council as at February 2019 and detailing the capacity and service in which they were engaged.  The report advised that as at the end of the reporting period, 68 agency workers were employed across all services.   

DECIDED: That the report be noted. 

DECIDED: It was noted that the next meeting of the Joint Consultative Board Non-Teaching was scheduled to be held at 3.30 pm on Wednesday, 5 June 2019.