UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Equal Opportunities Committee
Minutes of the meeting held on Monday 2nd February 2004
Present:
Professor R Dyson (in the Chair), Mr D Beaton, Ms F Miles, Dr
J Hutton, Mr D Richards, Ms M Melville, Mr D Wright, Dr H
Dennis, Dr J Burns
In Attendance:
Ms L Aspinall, Ms P Darville, Mr W Jones
Apologies:
Mr P Greatrix, Dr P Byrd, Ms G Frigerio, Dr A Parker, Ms C
Graham, Dr E Hines, Rev M Bratton
16/03-04
Membership
REPORTED:
17/03-04
(a)
That Dr Pam Lowe has been nominated to replace Dr Rebecca
Stewart as Contract Research staff representative on the
Equal Opportunities Committee.
(b)
That investigation was ongoing with the International Office to
identify a nomination for a representative for international
students to attend the EOC.
Minutes
RESOLVED:
That the minutes of the meeting held on 29th October 2003 be
approved .
18/03-04
(a)
Matters Arising on the Minutes
Focus Group reports (Minute 3/03-04 (c) referred)
REPORTED:
(b)
(i)
That a Working at Warwick Lunch was held on 25th
November 2003 to brief staff on managing requests for
flexible working.
(ii)
That training sessions on Diversity are still being
considered and further details will be circulated to the
committee in due course.
Part-time study opportunities for staff (Minute 3/03-04 (d) referred)
RECEIVED:
A paper produced by Personnel Services offering Chairs/Heads of
Departments guidance on the principles to adopt when considering
requests for time off for part-time study (Paper EOC 8/03-04).
RESOLVED:
(c)
(i)
That Personnel contact the Deputy Vice Chancellor to
understand the University strategy on communication
to those members of staff without PC access.
(ii)
That there be greater communication on the training
options available to staff with personnel to investigate
media by which to disseminate the information,
including
the
Website,
“Communicate”
and
developmental reviews.
(iii)
That a review of the appraisal process for all categories
of staff be undertaken by the Director of Personnel
Services in light of the Equal Opportunities Policy
meeting the context of the University’s HR Strategy.
(iv)
To reaffirm the University’s view that all staff have the
opportunity to have a development review, as stated in
the EO Policy. Heads of Departments attention should
be drawn to this aspect in the EO Policy.
Equal Opportunities Monitoring Report (Minute 4/03-04) (b,c,d)
referred)
REPORTED:
(d)
(i)
That a benchmarking exercise was being conducted by
DLA Advance to compare HEI’s. Once this was
received consideration would be made as to whether
additional benchmarking was required with Russell
Group Universities.
(ii)
That the Recruitment Manager was following up the
proposal to share “best practice” on recruitment with
the Students Union.
(iii)
That data on apprenticeships would be incorporated
into the next monitoring report for review at the Feb 05
meeting of the EOC.
Equal Opportunities Monitoring Report: Personal Promotions (Minute
5/03-04 referred)
REPORTED:
That a paper reviewing promotions in the last 5 years, focusing on
ethnicity and gender, would be submitted to the May 04 meeting of the
EOC.
(e)
Working hours for Academic and ALC staff (Minute 9/03-04 referred)
REPORTED:
(f)
(a)
That the information presented at the Working at Warwick
lunch on flexible working would soon be available on the
personnel website.
(b)
That guidelines for flexible working were also available on the
personnel website.
Harassment guidelines (Minute 14/03-04 refers)
REPORTED:
That the University’s Harassment Guidelines for students have
recently been amended and the guidelines for staff were currently
being reviewed and updated in line with new legislation. A copy of the
revised guidelines would be submitted to the next meeting of the EOC.
19/03-04
Student Union Letter
CONSIDERED:
A letter from Ciaran Osborne (Student Union) regarding gender
identification (Paper EOC 9/03-04).
RESOLVED:
That a response to Ciaran Osborne be sent on behalf of the EOC,
stating the practical difficulties of adding an additional box for sex on
University forms. The response will also note that cases of gender reassignment are treated sympathetically and sensitively by the
University.
20/03-04
Equality Challenge Unit/Commission for Racial Equality Project
RECEIVED:
A paper detailing the ECU/CRE Project Plan (Paper EOC 10/03-04).
21/03-04
Job Evaluation
RECEIVED:
An oral report from the Director of Personnel Services on the progress
of the Job Evaluation project.
REPORTED:
22/03-04
(a)
That the pilot study was completed in Dec 03 and the results of
this were currently under discussion by the review group.
(b)
That the scheme was to be implemented in August 2005.
(c)
That the University aimed to go to a single spinal scale with the
exception of Clinical Academics who were on NHS scales.
(d)
That re-grading would continue as is under the existing
schemes, until such point as they cease to make way for the
new scheme.
(e)
That pay would be protected for 4 years from date of
implementation, for those staff who receive a lower grade that
that they are currently on.
(f)
That further progress would be reported at the next meeting of
the EOC.
Date of Next Meeting
REPORTED:
That the next meeting of the Equal Opportunities Committee would be
held on Wednesday 19th May 2004 at 2.00pm in the Council Chamber,
Senate House.
LA/EOC 02/02/04