Issue - meetings

Motion

Meeting: 20/01/2021 - Council (Item 62)

A period of up to one hour is allocated to consider the motions on notice. This may only be extended with the agreement of the Council.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman explained that in respect of Councillor King’s motion it had been agreed by the Leader and Officers had been tasked with investigating delivery of this Motion. In respect of Councillor Hunter’s motion, it had also been agreed and Officers again, had been tasked with investigating delivery of this Motion.

The Chairman confirmed that the final Motion, from Councillor H Rone-Clarke, which had been published in the supplementary agenda pack for Members’ consideration, at page 27, would be debated in the usual way, with the time limit of one hour.

Trade Unions

Members considered the following Motion on Notice, submitted by Councillor H Rone-Clarke:

Background Information:

i. People on lower paid jobs are less likely to be able to work from home, increasing their risk of exposure to Coronavirus.

ii. That research by the TUC has found unionised workplaces to be more ‘Covid secure.’

iii. Union membership brings job security.

iv. Trade union membership will provide greater employment rights beyond the end of the pandemic.

Council sends congratulations to the Trade Union Congress on the 150^th anniversary of the passing of the Trade Union Act and

Council requests Cabinet to do the following:

i. Commit to sending a representative of the Cabinet to attend trade union liaison meetings moving forward.

ii. Reaffirm its commitment to working/consulting with trade unions as it leads us through the Coronavirus crisis and beyond.

iii. Commit to promote trade union membership both as an employer and for the people of Bromsgrove.

The motion was proposed by Councillor Rone-Clarke and seconded by Councillor P McDonald.

In proposing the Motion, Councillor Rone-Clarke explained that there were two aspects to the preparation of his motion and firstly the motion was put together with the help and guidance of people in the Trades Union movement and secondly, an integral part of the motion was that the Cabinet engaged more robustly with the Trades Unions, particularly those who represented employees and staff working at this Council. He had been interested to hear at the beginning of the meeting the number of Members who had or continued to be members of a Trade Union. Councillor Rone-Clarke asked Members to ask themselves a key question before they made a decision as to whether to vote for or against the motion; “If you are a member of a trade union would you not want the same robust engagement with your employer or stakeholders related to your Trade Union?” He wanted to extend the same curtesy to the staff of this Council, so he urged Members to consider this when making a decision and hoped Members would vote in the right way.

Councillor S Colella raised a point of order and asked for clarification as to what exactly Members were being asked to vote on. The Chairman suggested that Members were considering points i), ii) and iii) in the concluding paragraph of the motion. This was confirmed as being correct by Councillor Rone-Clarke.

In seconding the Motion, Councillor P McDonald ... view the full minutes text for item 62