Agenda item

COUNCIL MOTION - LIBRARY SERVICES

Minutes:

Report CSD19125

 

Members of the PDS Committee considered a motion which had been referred from a meeting of the full Council on 15 July 2019.

 

The motion (moved by Councillor Angela Wilkins and seconded by Councillor Vanessa Allen) requested that the RR&H PDS Committee undertake a 360 degree review of the services provided by Greenwich Leisure limited (GLL) under their contract to provide the borough’s library services.

 

Visiting Member Councillor Wilkins questioned how profit could still be achieved with a 25% reduction in costs to the service as implied by the contract.  The current strike action was primarily not brought about by the request for a 6% pay rise, but by concerns about staff terms and conditions.  GLL were not delivering the proposed 13 training modules, employees were not receiving an ‘acting up’ salary, vacant positions were not filled but temporary and/or casual staff were being brought in.

 

In comparing the last two monitoring reports, Councillor Wilkins noted that two questions which regularly received complaints, had been omitted from the customer satisfaction survey; these related to the cleanliness of toilets and opening hours.  Should customer satisfaction levels fall by more than 5% then the contractor would incur a relatively large fine.  Therefore, by omitting these questions, it could be presumed that GLL were manipulating the survey.  This would be covered by an internal audit to address key risk areas.

 

In response to Councillor Wilkins, GLL confirmed that whilst costs had reduced by 25%, the service had not. Councillor Wilkins referred to an APCOA parking contract report considered at a previous Environment and Community Services PDS meeting where it was reported that during the tendering process, the Council had told the contractors that the baseline for wages should be the National Minimum wage not the London Living wage.  As a result APCOA were unable to employ people due to the lower salaries offered.

 

Returning to the Library Contract, Councillor Wilkins highlighted that events had continued not to take place.  Penge Library used to support the Penge Festival but had been unable to for the past two years.  Some childrens events during the summer did not go ahead due to the strike action.

 

In summing up, Councillor Wilkins urged Members to agree the motion.  Further detailed information was needed on what and where resources were spent, some of which should be used to provide libraries i.e. Penge Library with a selection of books for ethnic communities. 

 

The Principal Client, Libraries reported that the 25% saving was based on the £6m figure for the year in which the transfer took place and included one-off capital payments to start the contract, additional refurbishment and IT equipment etc. and therefore did not reflect the normal revenue costs.

 

In regard to the omission of questions from the customer satisfaction survey, Members were informed that opening hours had not changed and respondents had been free to comment it they so wished; there was no attempt at concealment.  The question relating to toilets was not reported simply because the majority of libraries did not have any facilities on site.  However, both questions were now in the current survey.

 

Although some events were cancelled at the beginning of the industrial action, the majority of them had gone ahead as planned with additional activities brought in during the summer period.  It was agreed that a list of events that had taken place would be circulated to Members.

 

The issue of providing an ethnically diverse selection of books for the local population was included as part of the stock plan and was monitored to ensure they were purchased.

 

A further review would take place in six months’ time, the results of which would be submitted to a meeting of the PDS Committee.

 

The Managing Director, GLL confirmed that the Union had been requested to provide details in regard to alleged non-payment of ‘acting-up’ salaries.  To date, no response had been received. 

 

Referring to the comparison made between APCOA and GLL’s contract, the Managing Director believed this to be disingenuous as the contract itself required GLL to pay the London Minimum wage.  A total of 65 members of staff had been on strike which had impacted on those left to provide the day-to-day service; as a result, casual staff were hired to cover staff deficit.  GLL were happy to discuss all issues with the Union should they be willing.

 

It was confirmed that a significant amount of the savings was achieved by the reduction in business rates due to GLL’s charitable status. The Principal Client, Libraries agreed to circulate exact figures to Members.

 

Councillor Wilkins stated that GLL should be aware of all details and reasons why industrial action was taking place and that they should sit down and discuss these with the Union.  Whilst the Principal Client, Libraries had stated that opening hours were unchanged, complaints had been received which referred to libraries not being open at the time they should have been.

 

The Chairman moved (seconded by Councillor Allatt), that the motion be rejected on the basis that the contract was reviewed every six months and the service monitored on a regular basis.  Also, the internal audit would identify any existing breaches of contract. 

 

RESOLVED that the motion be rejected.

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