Issue - meetings

Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services

The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services that provided information on the levels of discipline, grievance, dignity at work and sickness absence within the Council (excluding schools).

The report indicated that the management of the workforce was an important activity to ensure outcomes for Sefton’s communities were achieved and to ensure that the workforce was appropriately managed and motivated. Specific information was provided on:

·       Disciplinary, Grievance and Dignity at Work - the organisation enjoyed a comparatively good level of cases and this reflected on the whole, both the good overall industrial relations environment, the partnership approach that was undertaken and also the work undertaken within departments

·       Suspensions - in the period August - December 2023, 10 employees were suspended from duty (not including schools)

·       Disciplinaries - during the period September – December 2023, there had been 13 disciplinary investigations

·       Grievances - during the period October – December 2023, there had been 4 grievances

·       Dignity at work - During the period September – December 2023, there had been 7 dignity at work complaints

·       Statistical data for Q1 and Q2 2023/2024 (01.04.23 – 30.06.23 and 01.07.23 - 30.09.23) which detailed ‘Short Term’, ’Long Term’ and ‘All Absence’ data along with previous year’s figures for comparison purposes

·       The Strategic Leadership Board continuing to monitor and encourage the reduction of levels of both short and long-term absence

·       The Occupational Health Unit providing counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy on a face-to-face basis

·       Physiotherapy appointments  being arranged through the OH Unit as were pension assessments for ill health, ill health pension appeals and deferred pension cases

·       The Council’s Sickness Absence Policy which operated in a partnership with trade unions

Members of the Committee asked questions/commented on the following issues:

·       Information was sought on the year-on-year statistics on the numbers of staff suspended from duty

·       The planned action, and timeframe, for addressing long-term sickness absence

·       The provision of sickness statistics differentiating between office based staff and operational staff

·       Benchmarking Sefton’s sickness statistics against similar local authorities

·       The impact of agile working on sickness absence levels

RESOLVED: That

(1)      the report providing information in terms of discipline, grievance, dignity at work and sickness levels be noted; and

(2)      the ongoing work and initiatives to monitor and encourage the reduction of levels of both short and long-term absence be noted.