PRESENT:

James Forse , Branch Chair; James Crass , Branch Secretary; Geraint Allaway & James Knox, Assistant Branch Secretaries; Phillip Newman, Branch Treasurer; Annette Pearce, Branch Organiser; Adam Bailey, Eastern; Henry Clare, East Midlands, Martin Clark, Fleet; Mike Dawson, Leeds; Jay Craney, Liverpool; John Barnes, London; Lillian Slack, Manchester; Liz Pacey, ACAS National; Barry Coleman, Newcastle; Christine Howard, Paddock Wood; George M^cKenzie, Scotland; Dave Whiting, West Midlands;, Jennifer Williams, Wales; Paul Healey, Senior Grades; Gill Smart, observer from Liverpool sub-branch.

 

0605/00    Apologies & Opening Remarks

Apologies from Margaret M^cMahon, Paul Staddon and Jon Dews (Dave Whiting deputising).  Liam O’Donnell also sent his apologies. He will be stepping down as full time officer in the near future, PCS have advertised the job. The branch have thanked Liam for his contribution, not least his work on the early day motion –currently before parliament (see 0605/11). The Chair welcomed Gill Smart from Liverpool sub-branch who was attending as an observer, and formally welcomed Liz Pacey to her first meeting as official rep for ACAS National.

 

 0605/01   Minutes, Action Points & matters arising.

The minutes of the previous meeting had been circulated in draft and agreed by email. The chair confirmed with the BEC that they were accurate. Christine Howard pointed out that the minutes showed that she had attended the previous meeting, she had not. Other than that the minutes were satisfactory.

Action points were reviewed and agreed.

A members’ newsletter has been drafted and will be circulated in the next few days.  

Stress audit – Management side propose that some questions on stress should be attached to the staff attitude survey, which it plans to conduct in the autumn.

The BEC discussed the issue. James Crass discussed the experience of a local stress audit conducted in the Southern area. The audit itself had been the easy part. The audit had uncovered issues that needed to be addressed. It was necessary to draw up an action plan & to take it forward.

It was argued that the union had 3 options – to take forward the audit without management cooperation; to press management to conduct a joint exercise; to go outside of ACAS, to Health & Safety Executive. Acting alone the union might embarrass management but an effective exercise would require that they are involved and have “ownership” of the results of the audit. The BEC agreed that the stress audit should not be a part of a Staff Attitude Survey, which already had a bad name around the organisation.  James Forse will clarify next steps for the TU side.

 

0605/02    Items from Sub-branches.
Pay statements – These were only received at area offices on pay day in April too late to be passed to staff who are not based at their area office or are out on the day - Geraint Allaway to take this matter forward.
Helpline Flexi-time – Newcastle helpline manager had identified problems with the flexi arrangements for staff on a variety of hours. The introduction of late and early shifts on helpline meant that there was a lack of clarity around issues of core time and bands of flexible working.  James Crass had previously taken soundings about this and found that any difficulties had previously been resolved locally.
Geraint Allaway noted that a single a single core time and bandwidth for all staff – no matter what shift pattern they worked, could be problematic, leading to a long hours culture, especially during the current problems of insufficient staff numbers & high demand. Core times and band widths should vary depending on what "shift" a helpline adviser works. James Knox indicated that the lack of sufficient late shift staff had meant that the issue had been fudged. Management side had indicated at the last INJC that Helpline would soon be fully staffed. As all new recruits & promotees would be allocated to the late shift the matter should now be revisited.  -Any feedback about local issues to JK.
Lease car mileage – this has been frozen for a number of years. James Crass noted this as an issue to be taken forward under the Travel & Subsistence claim.  

 

0605/03    Branch Secretary’s Report.

INJC took place on 20^th April individual issues from that meeting would be taken later in the BEC’s agenda.
The Branch Sec and others had met the DTI Review consultants – this was arranged through PCS DTI Group. (see 0605/11)
James Crass had attended a meeting about the Commission for Equality & Human Rights including senior representatives of various organisations.
 
Information about the EARS project will be forwarded to reps.

It was pointed out that the PLATO group was having difficulty getting information from the EARS project. This seemed to indicate a lack of co-ordination between the projects.

 

0605/04    Branch Organiser
The Vine Hotel had been a success. To allow bookings to be made early it was agreed that the January BEC would take place on 10^th January ‘07 in Stafford.  

 

0605/05    Treasurer’s Report
PCS Finance has not agreed to increase the branch budget and has urged the branch to cut back on meetings. The Branch Officers have agreed not to hold a residential meeting in October. The October BEC will be held in Bristol on 11^th October ‘06.
In order to economise reps were urged to share taxis where possible.  The possibility of a BEC held jointly with management would be investigated.

 

0605/06    Temporary Promotion & Substitution (TP & Subs)

TU side has responded to management about the latest draft TP & Subs agreement and awaits a further response.
Lillian Slack asked what advice reps should give to members who are interested in substitution, but not necessarily interested in promotion, when assessment centres (ACs) are run in their region, or in other regions.

James Knox replied it was wise for them to apply if the AC is within their own region.

It is not clear how long AC waiting lists would last for.

James Crass will seek a response to both points from management side.

 

0605/07    Investors in People (IiP). 
Management have now published the results of the IiP accreditation exercise. The full report can be found on the intranet: http://10.99.1.12/news_additions/april_2006/5.htm
Concerns were expressed that the full IiP inspection had conducted less thorough interviews than the initial exercise. James Crass responded that the assessors had used a variety of interview techniques – some face to face and others by phone. He was satisfied that the process was sufficiently in-depth and had involved a cross section of staff.
Information about the results of the IiP process would appear in the Branch Newsletter.

 

 

0605/08    ACAS Advisory Services.

Annette Pearce raised the concern that the ACAS website does not publicise ACAS advisory services. In fact there are links labelled “advisory services” – but these only give information about Equality advisers.

Concerns were raised that this was no accident and was part of a policy of ‘dumbing down’ and devaluing ACAS services. One adviser had indicated feeling as if they were only ever “one step ahead of the slide show” because of gaps in their training. Short staffing and cut backs meant they had to work alone, where their predecessors would have been paired with a more experienced colleague while they built up their skills. Operational training for Grade 8s has been a source of concern for staff for a long time. James Crass was seeking feedback from BEC reps about the local situation within their sub-branches. The training budget in general had been badly affected by the cuts. Grade 8’s who pointed out gaps in their training were likely to be pointed towards ‘marketing training’ rather than training in the skills they required to actually deliver ACAS services.
There is a G8 training working group as well as the Lifelong Learning sub-committee but both of these seem to exist in isolation, with management appearing to give them a low priority.
The ‘knowledge capture’ exercise was meant to minimise the loss of skills following the VER/VES exercise. What results has it achieved?

The BEC agreed that the role of the Grade 8 advisor should be clearly understood as the basis for any discussions about training needs for G8s.

 

0605/09    Helpline/Short Period Conciliation
James Knox gave an update. Operational Grade 10 issues were raised at the INJC. There are insufficient staff to run both Helpline and Short Period Conciliation services. Management indicated that current recruitment will rectify this once new staff are identified, recruited and trained.  No additional resource will be available to Helpline to deal with any increase in demand around Age Discrimination.
A management decision had been made not to include the helpline phone number on a press release regarding age discrimination publications. While, on one hand this showed an acceptance by management that Helpline is currently overstretched, TU side were concerned that this action would have little or no effect on numbers of calls to the Helpline, but might be damaging to ACAS in terms of PR – the DTI might see this as a failure by ACAS to fulfil its role. James Forse had written to Andrew Wareing expressing TU concerns, any reply would be shared with reps.
The issue of Age discrimination training for Helpline Advisers was raised. Feedback on the internal training has been mixed. Some found it useful, others believed the training provided had not considered Helpline needs and was little more than an awareness raising session, designed for employers, which didn’t clearly differentiate between the law and good practice.
In BEC discussion it was noted that the website can increase the complexity of calls to the Helpline – instructions from management to refer callers to the website if they have Age Discrim questions will backfire on Helpline staff. The DTI website will continue to refer people to ACAS. Other agencies will refer callers to ACAS.
Short Period Conciliators (SPCs) will be required to spend half a day each fortnight on Helpline. There are serious concerns that SPCs will have difficulty keeping up to date with changes in legislation that are outside the short period remit – such as Age Discrimination and TUPE. No extra reading time (or reduction in case load to allow for reading) is to be allowed for this. 
ACAS Helpline is recognised as the best in Government – current staffing problems mean it can’t deliver – this will damage the Helpline’s reputation.
Further Short Period Conciliator training has been organised in June. Some staff have been asked if they would cancel holiday bookings because of this.
Refusal to have Short Period Conciliation in London is going to be the subject of formal grievances from staff.
The May joint meeting to discuss the Future of Conciliation will be expanded to include helpline issues, because of the problems staffing both helpline and short period conciliation services.

0605/10    SME Subscription Service
A management working group is considering the introduction of a subscription service for SMEs (Small & Medium-sized Enterprises). The Central Office of Information has been engaged, at a cost of £44,000, to establish the viability of the proposal.  TU side have been informed about the proposals and will be arranging a meeting to discuss them.
The BEC discussed the issue and had a number of serious misgivings. It was proposed that a pilot should be run and this would offer a helpline service until 10pm.
The service would be employer only, so not impartial.
Charging would compromise the service: Why should anyone pay for what they can already get free?
Paying clients would expect partial advice and would put pressure on ACAS staff to over-step the boundaries and give partial advice.
The timing of this proposal couldn’t be worse as it will take further resource from the Helpline which is already critically understaffed.
There are issues of competition with the various organisations who run subscription services for employers. – What approaches should be made to such organisations?

The Chief Executive has expressed enthusiasm for a subscription service because subscribers will pay for it whether or not they use it.
The Better Regulation Task Force called on ACAS to provide this service free for SMEs.

Experience shows that smaller employers do not anticipate problems – they only look for help when problems actually occur – it will therefore be hard to sell them a subscription service.
Liz Pacey has some involvement with the management working group. She assured the BEC that the group was conscious of the concerns that reps were raising. Alternative means of funding the service (such as Regional Development Agencies) were being considered. The whole process is at an early stage.  
TU side will meet with Kelly Round to discuss the SME Service proposals later in May.

               

0605/11    DTI Review.
James Crass, Margaret McMahon & James Forse of ACAS PCS along with Kevin Etheridge of DTI TU Side met with the review team.  They made a number of observations about the report which the authors seemed to agree with – however they were not prepared to update or amend the report to reflect this. The following points were raised in the discussion:
The report moved away from its original remit – The reviewers said this was because ACAS makes up such a large part of DTI’s Employment Relations budget; however this ignores major costs like the set up costs for the CEHR.
TU side noted that the report observed that the DTI’s understanding of ACAS and its role was often found wanting. The report’s recommendation that ACAS should seek to eliminate “clearly unfounded” Employment Tribunal applications itself showed a lack of understanding.

The reviewers were asked if they wanted to see ACAS simply drop its charged training and advisory services. They replied that they did not. They believed that where ACAS provides a unique service it should do so with DTI funding, but where there is no ‘market failure’ the DTI should not subsidise ACAS to provide services that private consultants or training organisations can provide.
The reviewers were asked why ACAS should have to chase funding from each Regional Development Agency – wouldn’t it make sense to instruct RDAs to use & fund ACAS as an organisation that can help deliver good practice. The reviewers agreed that this seemed a sensible proposal but would not add it to their recommendations.
The Employment Tribunal service has now moved from DTI to Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) as part of a unified tribunal service. The unified tribunal service will be introducing mediation by tribunal chairmen. It is important that the relative costs of this process are monitored because it poses a threat to ACAS.

In response to the DTI review ACAS, in a letter from Rita Donaghy has offered to increase its income generation to £4.2million (compared to ACAS’s previous intention to raise £3.5m in 2007/8 and the target of £10m proposed in the review.)

Based on current plans, ACAS will have a budget deficit of £2.3million in 2007/8. The Chief Executive has the job of coming up with options for how ACAS will meet this budget shortfall. He has been in discussion with DTI following the review. DTI have agreed that ACAS can seek additional funding from RDAs, but have not moved on the issue of income generation and cost recovery.

 

0605/12    Early Day Motion (EDM)

The PCS group of MPs have tabled an early day motion setting out their support for ACAS and concerns about the future of the service (see appendix below).
Reps should encourage members to write to local MPs to build support for the EDM. Copies of the standard letter were distributed on disk, along with other campaign material. The text for MP’s letters can be found online at:
http://acaspcs.tripod.com/id96.html
Find out the name of your local MP at:

www.theyworkforyou.com

Email your MP using:
www.writetothem.com

(note: following the BEC a cabinet reshuffle has taken place. The new Secretary of State for Trade and Industry is Alistair Darling. The new minister with responsibility for ACAS is Jim Fitzgerald).

 

0605/13    Office Closures/Motion of Urgency 1
The Blackburn office has now closed. One member of staff has been declared surplus and efforts are being made to redeploy her.

 

0605/14    Time Recording
The system is in place and now that people are using it a range of issues are coming up.
There is no category for doctors/dentists appointments or for unpaid special leave. There may be problems for those who work condensed hours. People are likely to ‘round up’ their working hours overall.
A major problem is the way the system was introduced - it was simply put into the computer system and individuals were left to get on with it – this will inevitably lead to inconsistent practices emerging.
There are major concerns about management’s comments hinting at the intention to use the system for performance management in the future.
ACAS needs to be able to show how much staff time is used on different areas of work. The lack of this information probably had a damaging effect in negotiations with DTI to protect the ACAS budget.
Feedback to Geraint Allaway on any difficulties with the system.
During the discussion concerns were raised about what counts as a full day’s sickness for absence control purposes – this will be investigated. 

 

0605/15    Vacancy Filling
The failure to agree still stands. Grade 10 recruitment is going ahead in Bury St Edmonds – the short fall in helpline and short period conciliation staff is clear and is causing damage to the service. Delaying this recruitment exercise would only further prolong current problems at grade 10 level.
Overall greater clarity is required especially about the situation at ACAS National. Last year John Taylor indicated to staff around the country that National would “take the biggest hit” losing 34 posts in total. In reality only 24 ACAS National staff actually left ACAS on VER/VES. Now 42.5 vacancies have been bid for at ACAS National. The Chief Executive is to chair a “challenge panel” which will have the job of deciding whether all of these jobs should be filled.

The Wales & SW Director job is to be advertised – there have been no expressions of interest from substantive Grade 6s.
Grade 7 (AD) jobs will be advertised in Liverpool, Manchester, Cardiff, Fleet & London.
(Note that, following the BEC, the Manchester job has been filled by a substantive Grade 7 leaving a vacancy in Northern region)
The following Grade 8 Vacancies have been identified: –
In SE Region: 4 or 5; In NW: 2; In London: 1.
A G8 assessment centre will be run in June.
Recruitment is in progress for Grade 10s in Bury St Edmonds – there were 7 successful candidates for the equivalent of 4 full time posts.
G10 Recruitment to take place at Birmingham, Bristol & Fleet.
Fleet & Bristol will advertise on the ‘open market.’ This leaves a question of Paddock Wood staff on a G10 waiting list. 2 Staff were successful at a previous recruitment. Management will not allow them to work remotely as part of the Fleet helpline because they would be isolated. They also refuse to allow them to be Short Period Conciliators (SPCs). Now that SPCs are in post around the country it is becoming increasingly clear that there is no real link between Helpline and SPC jobs – there is some shared knowledge, but the skills required are very different and not complimentary. The decision not to promote the Paddock Wood staff was made despite the fact that there is an issue of possible overstaffing at Grade 11 in SE region when the Caseflow system for individual conciliation comes into effect. There may be surplus staff at Paddock Wood as a result.

The BEC discussed the issues. Concerns were raised about the changes to the Grade 10 assessment centre – dropping the group discussion ‘moves the goal posts’ and may lead some staff to submit grievances.
James Forse replied that this issue forms part of the failure to agree.
There were concerns that the Grade 8 assessment centre exercises did not focus sufficiently on key skills such as conflict resolution and objection handling. 
Clarification was needed about the status of waiting lists – assessment centre waiting lists appear to be open ended at present.   

0605/16    Performance Management System – Generic Objectives

Management have proposed the following standard objective for individual conciliators: "To contribute proportionately to saving 50% of potential hearings days in short period cases, 60% in standard period cases, and 85% in open period cases cleared by xxx Area in 06/07 by brokering settlements or withdrawals within the conciliation window, including where an extension has been agreed or the power exercised."
TU side has stated that the 85% figure for open period cases is too high. This was also the view of conciliation managers. Actual performance should be measured on an ongoing basis to establish a realistic figure. The TU will seek a review of actual results after 3 months.
The number of available performance marks is under review and has not finally been decided. 

The BEC discussed the issues, views were expressed that 85% was clearly too high. All objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic & Timely) – 85% was neither achievable nor realistic. Recent figures may show an artificially high level of performance, because, during the period when service standards have been relaxed/reduced, there has been a higher proportion of un-started cases. These may eventually have a negative effect on the overall number of cases cleared.   

 

0605/17    Date of Next Meeting
Wednesday 14^th June, at ACAS, Bristol.