Agenda item

[The report on the draft Smart Working Policy is attached]. 

The Human Resources Business Partner introduced a report on the Smart Working Policy and outlined the main areas of the report.  The policy had been considered by the Strategic Executive Board (SEB) earlier that day and they had requested the policy be tightened up in certain areas, including addressing the employees who would be disadvantaged.  The SEB had been asked to consider whether home working would be permitted during inclement weather in further detail.   

A Member of the Panel stated that the draft Smart Working Policy needed to be reconsidered to take into their account concerns over equalities issues for teachers and school staff, who were currently excluded from the policy.  Concerns were also raised in relation to the management of staff performance.  Some Panel Members suggested the policy should be implemented on a trial basis in a certain team.

A Panel Member stated progress needed to be made on agile working because there were 2000 people to be based at the Civic Centre and only 1400 desks.  He hoped appropriate work place risk and health and safety assessments would be taking place for those working at home as the employer still had a duty of care.  The extra risk assessments which would be required would put more pressures on managers. 

A Panel Member expressed concern that the core working hours were being changed and a request was made for further information on how this would impact staff and the Council.  In addition, Members requested further information on which teams the Smart Working Policy was expected to improve performance and for which teams there would be no perceived benefit.  The Chair stated she did have some concerns about the equality implications of the draft Smart Working Policy, believing it could cause some tension between staff. 

A Panel Member stated they wanted to have a better understanding of how performance would be monitored before the policy was implemented.  It was requested the item should come back to Scrutiny as a policy formulation item, where a vision could be established for agile working.  The Strategic Director of People confirmed that the draft policy was still yet to be considered by the Cabinet.  Some of the agile working practices detailed in the report, were already being trialed in some teams on an informal basis. 

There was a discussion about the financial implications of the Smart Working Policy.  The report had stated that there were no direct costs associated with the report.  Members believed there were indirect savings associated with the report due to agile working enabling Council owned or rented buildings to be relinquished, due to more staff being able to use Civic Centre as a base because of agile working.  The Strategic Director of People agreed with this assessment. 

A Member asked if Human Resources reports were still completed on the percentage of employees who had been given an annual appraisal.  He felt that if this was not at 100% compliance, then more work was required on managing performance before Smart Working was enhanced. 

The Chair expressed dissatisfaction with the recent communications the Council had sent to Staff and Councillors on 11 December 2017 about inclement weather.  She expressed concern that it adversely effected women more than men and was therefore unlawful under the Equalities Act.  The second concern was that an employer could only ask staff to take a day’s paid leave if they gave them sufficient warning.  The law stated that you must be given a warning period of at least double the length of the annual leave you were being asked to take.  So, if an employer wanted you to take one day’s annual leave, they would need to give you two days’ notice.  If a workplace was closed the law stated you were entitled to be paid and an employer could not force you to take annual leave.  She made a formal recommendation that the Strategic Executive Board (SEB) should reconsider the current inclement weather policy.  A Member stated that the communications sent out adversely effected people who had further to travel than someone living close to their office, who were more likely to be able to use alternative methods of transport, if they could not drive their car.  There were also concerns that people who had no remaining annual leave, would have been adversely affected.   

The Strategic Director of People stated that cooking and cleaning staff had been informed they would not be paid if the school was closed, which was clearly not right.  The Chair stated that it was her opinion this had been probably unlawful.  The Strategic Director of People stated that whilst the communications to staff about inclement weather arrangements had been sent with the right intent, they had in practice not achieved their original goals.  A full equalities impact assessment was required.  The concerns raised by Panel Members would be raised with the Strategic Executive Board (SEB) in the future. 

Members of the Panel requested the draft Smart Working Policy be considered again at a future meeting of the Confident and Capable Council Scrutiny Panel with more information provided on the concerns they had raised as a Panel.