Consultation display
Review of staffing support for Members and the review of the Disciplinary Procedure and Grievance Procedure
- This consultation has completed. It ran from Wednesday, 24 October 2018 to Thursday, 13 December 2018
- View the background to this consultation
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Purpose of the consultation
This
consultation contains proposals on two of the Remuneration Board’s workstreams:
Review
of the staffing support for Members
Purpose
of the consultation
At its meeting
on 11 October the
Board considered the evidence received during its review of staffing
support for Members on the issues it had yet to undertake a decision on. The
Board agreed:
- it hadn’t received sufficient evidence
on some areas of the terms of reference and therefore didn’t propose to
make any changes to those provisions;
- to defer consideration of some of the
areas of the terms of reference to its review of the Determination for the
Sixth Assembly;
- to consult on any
outstanding areas of the terms of reference.
The Board considered the
suitability of the current terms and conditions of support staff and agreed to
consult on amending or adjusting a number of provisions. A summary of these
proposals are noted below:
- adjusting support staff salaries in
April of each year by the change in the Annual Survey of Hours and
Earnings;
- introducing privilege days for support
staff;
- introducing a new
compassionate leave policy for support staff.
The
Board also considered the funding arrangements for Assembly Members who employ
family members and agreed to consult
on removing the ability of Members to fund the employment of family members and
partners from the Determination.
Terms of reference
The Board will review
existing and new evidence relating to the staffing allowances provided for Members,
to ensure that the financial support available supports the strategic purpose
of the Assembly and facilitates the work of its Members as well as ensuring
that the system of financial support for Member is robust, clear, transparent,
sustainable and represents value for the taxpayer.
The review will consider:
- the adequacy of the level of support
provided to Members;
- the flexibility and prescriptiveness of
the current support system for Members;
- the suitability of
the current terms and conditions of support staff.
Implementation
of the Dignity and Respect policy
Purpose of the consultation
Issues of harassment, bullying
and inappropriate conduct relating to support staff are dealt with according to
the processes outlined in the Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures. As such,
the Board has agreed that these documents need to be reviewed immediately to
ensure they are up to date and align with the Dignity
and Respect policy. At its meeting
on 11 October
the Board considered the initial feedback it had received on the Disciplinary
Procedure and Grievance Procedure and agreed to consult
on a number of changes to ensure both procedures are up to date and align with
the Assembly’s Dignity and Respect policy.
Terms
of reference
Following the adoption of the Assembly Commission’s
Dignity and Respect policy the Board committed to review all
appropriate documents and policies within its remit to support cultural change
and ensure that inappropriate conduct is not tolerated and is suitably dealt
with. The following documents and policies fall within its remit:
- Support staff Code of Conduct;
- Support staff Disciplinary Procedure;
- Support staff
Grievance Procedure.
Providing written evidence
The National Assembly for
Wales has two official languages, Welsh and English.
In line with the Assembly’s Official Languages
Scheme, the
Board requests that documents or written responses to consultations intended
for publication or use by the Board are submitted bilingually. When documents
or written responses are not submitted bilingually, they will be publish in the
language submitted, stating that it has been received in that language only.
The Board expects other
organisations to implement their own standards or schemes and to comply with
their statutory obligation.
Disclosure of information
Please ensure that you have
considered how the Board will use your information before submitting
information to the Board. This is noted in the annex
of the consultation document.
The deadline for
submissions is Thursday 13 December 2018. It may not be possible to take
into account responses received after this date.
Supporting documents
- Consultation letter PDF 190 KB View as HTML (1) 63 KB
- Consultation document PDF 585 KB View as HTML (2) 149 KB
- Privacy Policy PDF 133 KB View as HTML (3) 9 KB
Contact details
Should you wish to speak to someone regarding this consultation, please use the below contact details:
Remuneration Board
Welsh Parliament
Cardiff Bay
Cardiff
CF99 1SN
Email: Remuneration@senedd.wales
Telephone: 0300 200 6565