The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer submitted a report that sought to incorporate into the Ethical Procurement Policy the “Unite Charter for Ethical Employment Standards in the Voluntary and Community Sector”.

The had been adopted in March 2016 (Minute Exe/16/042). Recently the Council had been approached by the Unite trade union to see how the union could work with the Council to further develop and monitor the Council’s Ethical Procurement Policy. Discussion with the union had led to the proposal that the “Charter for Ethical Employment Standards in the Voluntary and Community Sector” be incorporated into the Policy.

The proposed change to the policy’s wording was to add…

“As a local authority we are responsible for the procurement of a multitude of contracts within the voluntary and community sector. It is therefore appropriate that we as a responsible Council have signed up to Unite’s Charter for Ethical Employment Standards in the Voluntary and Community Sector in order to achieve the highest standards of ethical employment and behaviour.  A link to the full charter that the Council have signed up to can be found in the appendix to the policy.”

A copy of the Charter would then be appended to the policy.

Those proposals were agreed.

Decisions

1.         To agree to the Unite Charter for Ethical Employment Standards in the Voluntary and Community Sector be included within the appendices of the Ethical Procurement Policy.

2.         To agree the inclusion of the additional wording to section 5 of the Policy as detailed in the report.

3.         To request that the Chief Executive signs the Charter on behalf of the Council to signify it has been included in the Policy.