Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Hunter.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

No declarations of interest were made.

PRIVATE SESSION

AGENDA

MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC TO NOTE

Under the law, the Committee is entitled to consider certain items in private. Members of the public will be asked to leave the meeting when such items are discussed.

The Committee is recommended to consider the following item in private on the grounds that it contains ‘exempt’ information, as defined by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, and consequently that the Committee makes the following resolution:-

“that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following item in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, because it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, namely information relating to an individual, and taking all the circumstances into account, it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the information as exempt outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information”.

RESOLVED:

            that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following item in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, because it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in the paragraph detailed below of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information:

Paragraph 1

Information relating to any individual

The Appellant’s Statement of Case and the Management’s Statement of Case are attached for all parties, along with a collection of background and general information.

The Committee considered an appeal against dismissal from employment with the City Council under the Council’s attendance management policy.

Karen Demmer (HR Team Manager) and Chris Burgin (Director of Housing) were present as advisors to the Committee.

The management representative was Caroline Carpendale (Head of Service, Housing) .  Hina Patel-Dhanji (Human Resources Advisor) was present as HR advisor to management.

The appellant was present and was accompanied by Dave Mitchell, of Unison trades union. 

The appellant did not call any witnesses.  Management called Mussa Hajat and Dawn Williams as witnesses.

The Committee considered the written submissions and discussed and took into account the evidence from management, the appellant and the witness in coming to its decision.

The Committee was extremely sympathetic to the health issues suffered by the appellant over the years and allowed further representations from the appellant to outline any other points he wished to raise on his historical absence history. 

RESOLVED:

That the appeal be rejected and the management decision to dismiss the appellant upheld.

Reasons:

1)    The Committee was concerned by the high level of absence from work since 2007, but was satisfied that management had appropriately supported the appellant over the years and found no evidence that there were any other motives for the dismissal other than the unsustainable nature of the absence.

2)    Based on the evidence presented, the City Council’s attendance management policy had been fairly applied and the decision to dismiss was reasonable given the circumstances of the case, based on the absence levels and taking into account that 3 previous final warnings had been issued before dismissal.

The meeting closed at 3.15 pm