City chiefs halve meets with unions

City council chiefs are to halve the number of times they meet up with trade union leaders in a formal council committee.

The “joint consultative group” (JCG) covers all employees of the city council and is made up of six councillors, council officials and 15 representatives of the trade unions that represent council workers in the city. The changes come after unions last year requested a review of the remit.

A group that included councillors, officials and trade union representatives investigated what changes could be made and the city’s finance and resources committee is to be asked to approve the changes at a meeting next week.

In the report, Alastair Maclean, the council’s director of corporate governance, said: “On August 30, 2011, the JCG considered a report summarising the discussions from the ‘short life working group’ and agreed, amongst other things, to recommend to the finance and resources committee that the JCG meet on a six-monthly basis, with additional meetings if required.”

The group previously met four times a year.