To consider an oral report of the Acting Director of Human Resources.

The Acting Director of Human Resources provided an oral report on exemptions to the Sickness Policy and further to Minute 4 of the previous meeting held on 15 September, advised that the application under consideration at that time had not been agreed. Subsequently, 3 further applications had been received, with 1 being granted and the other 2 under consideration.

A benchmarking exercise with Association of Greater Manchester Authorities and other Councils across the North West had revealed that none use criteria to determine applications. The Chairman re-affirmed that this was the position across the North West Employers region.

The Acting Director advised that as part of the process, a range of circumstances were considered, as was the position prior to 1^st April 2014, and that discretion had always been a factor.

RESOLVED: That the Committee notes that exemptions to the sickness policy will continue to be accessed on their individual merits and that the Committee will receive regular reports on the number of requests and their outcome.