There were no apologies for absence or changes to the Committee.

There were no disclosures of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 30th October 2007 were submitted and signed.

The Committee received a report of the Head of Human Resources on the proposed Gender Equality Scheme. The scheme and associated action plan formed part of the Council's overall equality framework and complimented the Corporate Equality Plan. The Head of Human Resources informed the Committee that there was a suggested amendment to the scheme. Sexual orientation and sexuality would not be monitored and the amendment was therefore to remove their reference on pages 17 and 21 of the scheme.

In response to a question from a Member, the Head of Human Resources said there were generally more women than men employed in local government. She explained that a reason for this was the flexible employment offered by local government such as job share, which women found particularly beneficial when returning to work following maternity leave.

As there had only been two responses from the consultation, a Member asked what consultation had been carried out. The Head of Human Resources said the draft scheme had been sent to key stakeholders including One Watford partners, Watford Women's Centre, it had been placed on the intranet, the internet, About Watford magazine and sent to all Members. She said people were often put off by the length of the document. The Chair suggested a précis could be beneficial and could encourage more people to respond.

The Chair asked when the staff handbook would be produced. The Head of Human Resources said it had been delayed partly due to the shared services proposal, but should be produced in June 2008.

The Committee received a report of the Head of Human Resources setting out the proposed redundancy policy. The Head of Human Resources outlined the proposed redundancy policy in detail. The Chair then invited Members to ask questions on the policy.

A Member asked about suitable alternative employment. She asked whether an employee did not want to take the suitable alternative employment during the trial period, they would have an opportunity to make a case to say that the job was not suitable. The Head of Human Resources said redundancy payment would not be unreasonably refused if the employee was unhappy. The Member asked that text be added into the policy to this effect.

Another Member asked if there was anything in the suitable alternative employment which covered an employee actually being able to carry out the new job. The Head of Human Resources said capability was a different issue to redundancy which would be covered by the trial period in the new job.

In response to a question from a Member, the Head of Human Resources said that employees could have work colleagues or union representatives in meetings for individual consultation on redundancy as friends or family members could be emotional which was not helpful. She explained that the policy in this respect complied with the legislation.

The Member also asked about the cost of actuarial strain and whether that conformed to the Age Discrimination Act. The Head of Human Resources said if considered with a range of other criteria, this would be acceptable. This also applied to considering the length of service.

A Member commented on the timescales involved with regard to individuals involved in the process. The Head of Human Resources said that the most stressful time for employees was when redundancies were anticipated but not determined. It could then be a long time before anything was confirmed; this was when it became difficult to raise morale. Once redundancies had been confirmed and consulted upon, the process then progressed quickly. The maximum notice employees were given was three months.

The Chair asked who formed the moderation panel with regard to job evaluation. The Head of Human Resources said it would be herself and the Trade Union Liaison Officer.

The Committee received a report of the Head of Human Resources setting out the workforce monitoring report for 2006/07. The Head of Human Resources explained that the Race Relations Act 2000 placed a statutory duty to monitor by ethnicity a number of key areas of employment data. The report also provided statistics on gender, age and disability. The Head of Human Resources said that a lot of data was not collected as employees chose not to declare their ethnic background or disability.

The Chair invited Members to comment and ask questions. One Member said it was good to see progress had been made in the last few years. He commented that it was difficult to attract younger employees to WBC as Watford was an expensive place to live. He asked that the category called British in the analysis by ethnicity on page 6 of the report be changed to White British. The Member commented that the numbers of employees with Pakistani ethnic origin were under represented. The Portfolio Holder for Human Resources said the Council's remit used to include more community facing jobs which were taken away. He said this created some tension in certain communities as it was felt the Council was targeting them rather than the jobs. He said it was difficult to encourage certain communities to a shrinking organisation.

Members discussed and agreed that the Council should not positively discriminate, but could ensure that adverts for vacancies should reach all communities.

A Member commented that often people did not disclose a disability as they did not see themselves as having a disability or did not want to be defined by it.

In response to a question from a Member, the Head of Human Resources said that, to encourage young people to join the Council, they attended a recruitment fair each year which the local schools attended. They also went out to some schools and carried out mock interviews. She said with regard to work experience, it was not advertised greatly as line managers often worried that they would not have the time to supervise.

The Portfolio Holder said there would be some changes in the employment figures post leisure transfer. The Chair said the Committee would like to see these figures at a future meeting.