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February 09, 2008
CAR PARKING
This item was placed on the agenda for our planned meeting with HR on 08/2/08, but the chief officer, Barrie Crook, cancelled the meeting. Napo has upset HPA again by submitting written objections to the minutes of our meeting with HR last December. We have ‘trust and confidence’ issues with HR arising, in part, from the ECU debacle and the continuing mess of the sickness policy which is still resulting in unfair treatment and wrong guidance.
We don’t know when HPA will decide to meet with the trade unions again. Last July the chief officer removed car parking from the negotiations on ECU and promised that a separate review, involving the unions, would take place last autumn. It never took place and HPA have shown no interest in the subject since. There is a supposed deadline approaching at the end of March. Those members who have already lost ECU now face the loss of car parking permits. It is of note that when it comes to gaining trust status there will be roadshows and briefings but when it’s about the erosion of terms and conditions – silence.
Another Area whose decisions resulted in some staff having ECU withdrawn agreed to pay, as a goodwill gesture, all the parking costs for those staff who agreed to continue to use their cars for business purposes. We did ask HPA to follow this example, but they declined.
Had the meeting with HR taken place as planned we would have asked:
How many staff and what grade of staff are likely to be denied parking permits?
Were any staff promised car parking permits at interview?
How many staff receive free office parking?
Are you intending to impact assess the proposed changes, in relation to disability and other equalities issues?
Are there any health and safety risks associated with the proposed changes?
Members who believe that at their job interview they were given an undertaking that they would have their parking paid will need to consider a grievance route.
Members who choose to adopt casual user status and who show through their mileage that they are on course to reach the annual 500 miles threshold should apply now for ECU.
Members who are obliged to cease using their cars for business purposes should ensure that travelling time for business purposes is acknowledged by their line managers as the ECU policy makes it clear that time is a consideration that must be part of any judgement about efficiency. We will resist any extra hours of work being piled on members by default.
We trust that HPA will meet with the unions as soon as possible to address what is a very important issue to all those members affected.
Posted by Hampshire at February 9, 2008 07:02 PM