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Appendix B
Equality Impact Assessment – Terms and Conditions 2014
1. What are the main aims purpose and outcomes of the Policy and how do these fit with the wider aims of the organization? |
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The council has recently consulted on changes to a variety of policies that affect staff as part of the annual pay bargaining processes. There are two main reasons for the changes:
At the same time the council wants to minimise employee relations issues with staff and some of the changes will therefore only apply to new staff. Eight changes have been consulted through the trade union consultation process:
All these terms and conditions are part of the benefits package for employees working at the council and the wider aim is to ensure that the council is able to recruit and retain good quality staff to deliver its corporate priorities. The council’s approach to service delivery is changing and this is not necessarily always by means of directly employed staff but maybe through working in partnership with others. Currently our most significant partnership is the Mid Kent Improvement Partnership (MKIP) with Tunbridge Wells and Swale Councils with almost 215 people working in one of the shared services. There is no single employment model for the shared services and this means that the managers of these services may be operating three different sets of terms and conditions and wherever possible the aim of these changes are to streamline our policies to more closely match those of the other two partners.
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2. How do these aims affect our duty to: · Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimization and other conduct prohibited by the act. · Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. · Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
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All these changes will be applied equally to our staff with the exception of the changes to annual leave which will be applied only to new starters and those that change job after the changes are applied. It is not possible to know the equalities profile of those that are not yet employed so this impact assessment is written on the basis that new recruits will follow the same profile as current employees. An outline analysis of our current workforce is below.
In considering the impact of the changes it should also be noted that although some of these terms were available in theory in practice over the years they have been rarely used by the majority of staff so the actual impact is what needs to be assessed rather than the hypothetical impact.
The change to the long service policy is the main policy change that contributes to the elimination of inequality as it extends an age related benefit.
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3. What aspects of the policy including how it is delivered or accessed could contribute to inequality?
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The greatest impact will be with regard to annual leave entitlements as these have been reduced in grades 8-16 for new starters and for those that change role, although current staff will be protected on their current entitlements. There is some suggestion that this could be more detrimental to women who general carry more caring responsibilities outside of work than their male counterparts. There two other factors that should assist with the need for flexibility for caring responsibilities, the first is the Flexible Working Regulations 2014 which have extended the opportunities for formal requests for flexible working for any reason and the second is that the council allows employees to but additional annual leave days to assist with work/life balance issues.
With regard to new starters the trade unions felt that this was not an issue as new recruits are made aware of the terms at the start of their employment and the revised offer is still considered to be a solid employment offer.
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4. Will the policy have an impact (positive or negative) upon the lives of people, including particular communities and groups who have protected characteristics ? What evidence do you have for this?
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There should be no wider impact on the lives of the wider community. There will be minimal impact on staff for most of these policy changes as there were very few people paid or using the benefit and where there is a wider impact protection has been provided.
There will be a positive benefit to staff in the extension of the long service award (which could be considered to be indirectly related to age) as a greater number of people will be included.
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Appendix One
Equalities Profile 1st April 2014
Age
Disability
Ethnicity
Gender
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Gender analysis of annual leave changes
Maidstone current |
Start |
5 years |
Maidstone new |
5 years |
Loss years 1-4 |
Total loss |
Grades 1-7 |
22 |
27 |
22 |
27 |
0 |
0 |
Grades 8-11 |
25 |
30 |
24 |
27 |
-1 |
-3 |
Grades 12-13 |
27 |
32 |
26 |
29 |
-1 |
-3 |
Grades 14-16 |
32 |
37 |
32 |
32 |
0 |
-5 |
Maidstone current |
Male |
Female |
Impact analysis |
Grades 1-7 |
125 |
185 |
Movement within grades 1-7 has no impact. Promotion from grades 1-7 into grades 8-11 gives an initial increase in leave but after 5 years is equivalent to grades 1-7 so no impact. |
Grades 8-11 |
73 |
78 |
Movement within grade would mean a reduction in annual leave but with a broadly similar number of males and females in the grade there is no indirect discrimination. Promotion to grade 12-13 would give an increase of one day if under 5 years’ service but a reduction of one day if over 5 years, however male/female numbers broadly the same so no indirect discrimination. |
Grades 12-13 |
22 |
15 |
This change affects proportionately more males than females, but there is relatively little job movement in this grade level. A promotion from this level into grade 14 would have no impact on annual leave entitlement. |
Grades 14-16 |
10 |
4 |
Grade 14 is the Head of Service grade and there is very little scope for job movement at this level, the same applies for grade 15 – director positions. |