At our quarterly meeting with Councillors (called the Joint Consultative Panel) the trade unions raised concerns that management were not being allowed to apply any discretion on whether to begin the sickness procedures or not – despite the ability of managers to use discretion being in the Council’s own policy.
UNISON simply asked for the Councillors to ask HR to ensure the Council’s policy is applied correctly.
It is pleasing to report that Councillors, including the Council Leader Steve Trow, agreed with the trade unions.
Therefore managers now clearly have the discretionary power on whether to commence a stage 1 sickness meeting or not.