NORTHERN IRELAND COLLEGE EMPLOYERS’ FORUM
CIRCULAR NO: CEF 2011/02
13 April 2011
To:Joint Secretaries, Non-Teaching Staff Negotiating Committee
Directors/Principals and Chairpersons of Governing Bodies of Colleges of Further Education
HR Managers of Colleges of Further Education
Department for Employment and Learning
GMB
UNITE
NIPSA
UNISON
FURTHER EDUCATION NON-TEACHING STAFF NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE
Joint Facilities Agreement
In accordance with the provisions of Article 11, Schedule 3, paragraph 10.3 of the Further Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 and the Constitution for Negotiating the Terms, Conditions of Service and Remuneration of Non-Teaching Staff Employed in Colleges of Further Education, it has been determined that the Joint Facilities Agreement has been agreed at the Non-Teaching Staff Negotiating Committee on 13 April 2011 and will be effective from 1 May 2011.
Bertie Faulkner
Chairman
College Employers’ Forum
FACILITIES FOR REPRESENTATIVES OF RECOGNISED TRADE UNIONS (FURTHER EDUCATION)
INTRODUCTION
1.This agreement between the Management Side and Staff Side of the Lecturers’ Negotiating Committee and Non-teaching Staff Negotiating Committee describes the principles and practices in respect of the facilitiesthat may be made available to those employees, not being paid officials of any of the recognised trade unions. A list of recognised trade unionsis contained within the relevant negotiating committee constitution.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
2.This agreement is based on the belief that both the trade unions and the employing authorities accept their joint responsibility for ensuring a well-ordered system of trade union organisation and industrial relations and on a recognition of the contribution that can be made by the trade unions and their local representatives to the smooth running of the further education service at all levels.
3.It is agreed that in jointly determining the nature and extent of the facilities to be provided locally, and in their use, the parties will have regard not only to the value of the agreed facilities for effective employee representation as a means of promoting good employee relations, but also to the need to avoid unnecessary cost in maintaining the effective running of further education colleges where the employee representatives are employed, and recognise that the provisions of the agreement will have to be introduced within the resources available to the college concerned. At all times the need to maintain the college at efficient level of operation is paramount.
4. Arepresentative[1]of a recognised trade union will be an employee who is:-
a.a member of the National Executive;
b.a Northern Ireland regional representative whose duties are necessary for theorganisation in order to support the collective negotiating structure;
c.a representative of the organisation whose duties will be at college level;
d.a health and safety representative of the organisation whose duties will be at college level.
In certain circumstances a representative may have responsibility at more than one of these functional levels. For their part the recognised trade unions undertake to ensure that their representatives understand the extent of their authority and responsibility as employee representatives.
5.It will be the responsibility of the recognised trade unions to notify the collegeDirector of the names of representatives as defined in Paragraph 4and it will be to these representatives only that the recommended facilities are extended.
6.The allocation of time to facilitaterepresentatives, in accordance with the responsibilities defined in Paragraph 4, will beas follows:-
a.Time to attend ‘national’ meetings up to a maximum defined in section 9;
b.Time to attend negotiating Committee meetings and associatedpre meetings;
c.Time to undertake trade union duties i.e. time to represent members both individually and collectively;
d.Time to undertake duties as a Health and Safety representative. Allocation of time will be reasonable to ensure duties can be carried out.
7.a.It is also accepted that representatives in some instances will not need to be absent for the whole day. If not, it is expected that they return to their normal place of work at the end of such meetings.
b.Prior agreement for planned meetings/conferences/etc must be obtained at least five working days in advance of the meeting in accordance with the normal College procedures.
cLeave of absence should not be unreasonably withheld.
dTravel expenses will be paid by the appropriate trade union.
e.Recognised trade unions will make available to individual colleges a detailed description of their constitution and organisation as it affects representatives at college, regional and national levels.
f.The recognised trade unions will also be prepared annually or on request, to verify the numerical strength of their membership at the various levels described and submit this by the specified deadline.
8.The time specified below represents the total allocation available for each union per college regardless of the number of representatives.
9.a.AMemberoftheNational Executivewill be granted the time necessary to attend ‘national’ meetings up to a maximum of 12 days per year, whichfor those on lecturing contractsequates to86 hoursannualised contractedhoursmade up of 49 hoursstudent contactand 37 hours associated duties.
b. A Member of the Negotiating Committeewill be granted the time necessary to attend Negotiating Committee and pre meetings, time allocation will be split between student contact and associated duties.
c.Each Union will be allocated the time allocation listed in the table below to facilitate representing at college level.
For Lecturing Staff this is made up as followsTotal annualised hours / Student Contact / Associated Duties
5 - 30 members / 108 / 62 / 46
31 - 60 members / 180 / 103 / 77
61 - 100 members / 216 / 124 / 92
101 - 150 members / 288 / 166 / 122
151 – 250 members / 324 / 186 / 138
251 – 350 members / 396 / 228 / 168
351 + members / 468 / 269 / 199
The College will consider requests from a full timeofficial to consider allocation of additional time for a temporary period to cover additional workload for representatives for example, as a result of Dispute Resolution Management, redundancy situation, transfer of undertakingsor new job evaluation implementation.
d. Reasonable time to undertake duties as a Health and Safety Representatives.
10.The facilities for representatives may include the following and shall be agreed with management beforehand:-
a.use of the college email facilities including access to the internet for purposes relating to the representatives trade union duties, in line with the college’s acceptable use policy;
b.use of telephone with reasonable privacy, with payment by the college, within the scope of the college’s telephone use policy, where applicable;
c.provision of a room for a meeting with an organisation’s members as requested, provided reasonable notice is given;
d.use of thecollege word-processing, duplicating and reprographic equipment where available, for essential union work within the college provided this does not interfere with the work of that college;
e.access to a small room which can be used as an office where this is possible within a college. This provision will be for the use of all trade union representatives;
f.notice board facilities for notices which should bear the name of the union and should be signed by the representative;
g.provision of furniture as necessary, e.g. a desk with a lockable drawer and/or lockable cabinet. The location will depend on whether a room under e. has been provided;
h.additional expenditure/facilities required to be locally negotiated.
Any additional expenditure incurred by the college should be borne by the trade union concerned.
11.a.Representatives maybe allowed paid time off work for initial basic training and for further training (where time off work is approved a maximum of 5 days may be granted per annum), where such training is necessary to meet circumstances such as changes in legislation affecting the representative’s duties.
b.The maximum possible notice should be given by the trade union concerned to receive basic or further training. The college should be notified, through the collegeprocesses.Acopy of the syllabus or prospectus indicating the contents of the training course or programme should be provided.
1
Facilities For Representatives Of Recognised Trade Unions (Further Education)
Version 5 - March 2011
[1] “Representative” defined as a union representative and employee who has been elected or appointed in accordance with the rules of the independent union to be a representative of all or some of the union members in the particular company or workplace [ACAS Code].