Napo had a meeting with the employers and trade unions on Friday. The employers apologised for their lack of response and explained that due to the recruitment freeze in the civil service, they had been unable to recruit to the vacancies left by the previous leads, however that is now resolved and there is a full team in place and ready to recommence the work.
The new team are spending the next two weeks reviewing all of the paperwork and previous history with a plan to send out dates to resume the focus groups early January by Christmas.
We have suggested they use the information they already have to put together a very draft job description to resume work from, which should also guide where the gaps are. They are hopeful to have an agreed draft to go to the trade unions by early spring for formal consultation and then to the job evaluation panel by Easter.
It is noted that the enhanced VLO role will remain paused until this JES process has completed.