Cbi Staff Council Constitution

CBI STAFF COUNCIL – THE CONSTITUTION

The CBI Staff Council will help the CBI to better benefit from the knowledge, experience and opinions of its employees in reaching decisions on matters that affect employees. The CBI Staff Council will assist in effective information exchange, communication and consultation – ensuring employees are involved in subjects affecting them. Employees may themselves initiate discussion on matters of interest and concern to them at the Staff Council. It is the intention of all parties to this agreement that through open exchange of views the Staff Council will contribute to the development of the CBI in delivering its objectives, through facilitating innovation, raising job satisfaction and the acceptance of positive change.

Guiding principles 1. The CBI aims to be open, accountable and transparent and believes in informing staff and seeking their views on matters that affect them. Such information and sharing of views makes an important contribution to remaining efficient and flexible and securing the long-term interests of the organisation. 2. Information is shared with employees and consultation undertaken through a range of methods including team meetings and all staff meetings. Employees’ views are also sought through lunchtime briefings and face to face meetings. The various forms of employee involvement are summarised in the CBI Matrix of Employee Involvement. 3. Consultation means senior managers and employees exchanging views and ideas either before a decision is taken or with regard to the implementation of a decision. To be effective, this is a two way process where ideas are listened to and account taken of employees’ views before a decision is reached or implemented, and where feedback is provided in the event that views or ideas are not implemented. 4. The CBI Staff Council provides the forum for employee involvement via representatives and it provides one mechanism for consulting and informing employees on such matters as: • CBI policies • general issues of salaries, benefits and pensions • issues affecting employment e.g. redundancies or transfers of undertakings • terms and conditions of employment • health and safety • the working environment • training and development.

1

Composition and attendance 5. The Staff Council shall comprise 9 Members elected by staff, together with 3 Representatives of the Management Board. These Members and Representatives shall take part in any vote taken at a meeting of the Staff Council. 6. Members of the Staff Council shall make every effort to attend all of its meetings. A Member of the Staff Council who is unable to attend a meeting may nominate, with the agreement of other staff council members, a colleague to attend in their place. Council members 7. The Chair of the Staff Council shall be the Deputy Director-General, a CBI Director may take the Chair in his/her absence. 8. There shall also be an Employee Chair, elected by all employees from among the Employee Members of the Council. The Employee Chair shall act as leader and spokesperson for the Employee Representatives of the Council between meetings, maintaining open and regular dialogue with senior management. There shall be a Deputy Staff Chair elected by the Employee Representatives of the Council, who shall deputise for the Staff Chair in his/her absence. 9. There shall be a Secretary who shall provide administrative support as an integral part of his/her permanent job specification. Role and Responsibilities of Employee Representatives 10. The role of Employee Representatives is to inform and consult with their constituents on the issues raised in Council meetings. This means ensuring their constituents are aware of the issues raised and giving them the opportunity to express their views on these points. It also means giving their constituents the opportunity to raise issues for the Employee Representative to bring to Council meetings. To express others’ views accurately, Employee Representatives must ensure that they represent others’ views accurately. This applies both in the case of relaying Company information to their constituents and also representing their constituents’ views at Council meetings. Role and Responsibilities of Chair 11. The Chair will accurately inform and consult on issues raised within Council meetings. The Chair may invite specialists to Council meetings to provide information or join discussions on specific issues. The Chair is responsible for ensuring that agenda items are covered, that each Employee Representative has an opportunity to express the views and feedback of their constituents and that action points are recorded as appropriate. The Chair will also state when issues are confidential. Where confidential issues arise, the Chair will specify what information is confidential. Role and responsibilities of Management Representatives 12. Management representatives must accurately inform and consult on issues raised within the Staff Council with the Management Board of the CBI.

2

Meetings 13. The Staff Council shall meet formally twice a year. Employee Representatives shall hold two meetings in addition to these meetings; one of these meetings shall be a formal meeting of representatives and the other an informal lunch-time meeting, which any CBI employee can attend. Ad-hoc meetings can be called by either side. 14. Meetings at which Management Members are present shall be attended by the Deputy Director-General (whenever practicable) and by two Directors to represent the Management Board. CBI’s Directors of Personnel and Finance may also be invited when appropriate. Other employees may also be invited to attend meetings of the Staff Council on an ad hoc basis. 15. Minutes shall be taken of all meetings of the Staff Council, approved by the Chairman and the Staff Chair and circulated by the Secretary to all employees via email as soon as practicable after the meeting. Minutes shall also be taken of any Sub-Committees and circulated to all employees via e-mail as soon as practicable after the meeting. Elections for Employee Representatives and Employee Chair 16. The Secretary shall conduct elections for Employee Representatives. All employees of the CBI (including fixed term staff) shall be eligible to vote in elections. If the number of candidates does not exceed the number of vacancies to be filled, the candidate/s shall be elected unopposed. If the number of candidates is less than the number of vacancies to be filled, the Secretary shall call for further candidates to fill the remaining vacancy/ies one week after the closing date for nominations. If there are still vacancies after this, the Secretary shall call for candidates to fill them after six months, and if necessary, twelve months. If the number of candidates exceeds the number of vacancies to be filled, the Secretary shall conduct a secret postal ballot, using coloured ballot papers, and shall publish the names of those elected. The closing date for the return of ballot papers shall be fourteen days after the issue of ballot papers. 17. In the event of a tie between two or more candidates which bears upon the outcome of the election, the Secretary shall conduct a further secret ballot among those candidates only. If this ballot results in a further tie, the outcome shall be decided by lot. The decision of the Secretary concerning the votes cast and the results of elections shall be final. 18. Members of the Staff Council shall be elected by a simple majority. Each eligible voter may cast as many votes as there are representatives to be elected for the constituency. The constituencies for the first elections to the Staff Council are identified in the attached annex. Constituencies and the number of representatives per constituency may be adjusted by the Staff Council for future elections in the interests of fairness.

3

19. The Employee Chair of the Staff Council shall be elected by a simple majority of staff at large from among the Employee Representatives of the Staff Council. Each eligible voter may cast one vote only. Candidates for Staff Council and Employee Chair 20. All employees of the CBI, excluding members of the Management Board, shall be eligible to stand for election to the Staff Council, except those who have served for four consecutive years on the Staff Council, who may not stand for election for at least one year. The closing date for nominations shall be fourteen days after the notice calling for nominations has been issued. 21. Candidates for election shall give formal notice of their candidature to the Secretary, together if they wish with a mainly biographical statement of not more than 200 words. If a candidate for the Staff Council would be unwilling in principle to stand for election as the Employee Chair, they shall give notice of this to the Secretary when giving notice of their candidature. Election statements shall be circulated by the Secretary to all those eligible to vote. Candidates shall not require a proposer or seconder. 22. The term of office for the Employee Chair and Employee Representatives shall be three years, unless they resign from office or from the CBI staff. Their term of office shall not be affected by any change in their working location. They shall be eligible for re-election. 23. The Secretary shall hold a general election every three years. The Secretary shall hold a bye-election when a vacancy occurs. Members of the Staff Council 24. Members of the Staff Council shall make every effort to attend all meetings of the Staff Council and, when this is not possible, nominate a deputy. 25. Employee Representatives: • shall maintain regular two-way communication with staff in their constituency, reporting issues of principle to the Employee Chair and, where appropriate, resolving local issues directly with Directors • advise and assist individual staff in their constituency, where necessary discussing issues directly with Directors - subject to formal grievance or disciplinary procedures in place at the time. 26. These reponsibilities shall form an integral part of the individual’s job specification during their term on the Staff Council and shall be recognised by line managers as contributing to the overall effectiveness of the CBI. 27. Members shall receive: • appropriate training to carry out these responsibilities • recognition in performance assessment for the workload involved in them, but without evaluation of performance in respect of them • sufficient time and resources to carry them out effectively

4

•

any travelling expenses necessary to attend meeting.

28. Members representing the same constituency shall decide between them an appropriate division of responsibilities. Members from the Regional Offices outside London shall liase between themselves and with the Employee Chair to ensure that the views of Regional Offices are fully represented at all meetings. 29. Individual Members should not normally circulate any written notes of the meeting before the official Minute has been circulated, but the Employee Chair may circulate such notes as reflect the views of the Employee Representatives as a whole. Sub-Committees 30. The Staff Council may establish and wind up sub-committees or ad-hoc subcommittees which shall report to it. They may have members drawn from the staff as a whole and they shall be chaired by Directors or appropriate policy specialists. Issues such as remuneration shall be dealt with by the Staff Council rather than by a sub-committee. The Employee Chair shall be advised of the establishment by management of any ad-hoc working groups set up to examine work organisation issues and the Employee Chair may make suggestions for membership. Review of Constitution 31. The Constitution of the Staff Council shall be reviewed by the Staff Council after its first year in operation, and thereafter as necessary. Changes to the Constitution shall be made only with the approval of the Staff Council with both Employee Representatives and Management Members present.

June 2005

5