North Lanarkshire and JES
JOB RE-EVALUATION PROJECT
As you will be aware, the Council and unions have been undertaking a joint re-evaluation process for certain posts, overseen and validated by an Independent Technical Expert. The joint team has now concluded their re-evaluation assessments and the Independent Technical Expert is now undertaking an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) on the outcomes. The outcomes and EIA require to be considered by the Joint Re-evaluation Board and council before employees can be notified of the outcome of the re-evaluation of their job. Dates are currently been scheduled for a meeting of the Joint Re-evaluation Board.
My immediate reaction to the statement is that it raises many more questions than answers, but here are some of the obvious points I imagine local union members are asking themselves.
- Why is there no explanation or apology for the delay in completing the JE exercise?
- Why is there no definite end date in sight after all this time?
- Why is there no comment from the about the recent 'interference' in the JE exercise from Home Care managers?
- Why do the unions not share the information collected during the process so far, including all the new Job Descriptions and JE Factor Scores?
- Who is the Independent Technical Expert?
- Will the results of the Equality Impact Assessment be shared with union members?
- Will the report to the Joint Re-evaluation Board be shared with union members?
- Will the findings and recommendations of the Joint Re-evaluation Board be shared with union members?
No doubt union members will be raising these issues with their local representatives, but if you ask me there is now a real danger of the workforce being presented with a fait accompli rather than a set of proposals which command people's confidence and trust.
Because as I've said before on the blog site a properly run JE exercise, in my experience, operates on the basis of complete openness and transparency.