The final draft of the Catering and Food Procurement Toolkit suggests the following for "Invitation to Tender" Evaluation - where there is clear involvement recognised for trade union reps....extract.

Evaluation of ITT Submissions

The ITT evalaution process comprises of three stages:

1 the evaluationof the tenderer's technical ability and organisation capability;

2. the interview of those who achieve above the minimum 50% score in point 1 above.

3. the assessment of the costed proposal for services as specified in the Catering Specification.

Stage 1. Technical Ability and Organisation Capability

Each member of the evaluation panel should independently assess each supplier's submission based on the scoring criteria set out in the valuation pack. An example ITT evaluation can be found in Template 6. Each member of the panel should present their scores to the Facilitator prior to evalaution panel meeting. The ITT evaluation panel normally involves the following interested parties.

1. End User

2. Budget Holder / Project Manager / Techical Advisor

3. Representative from Trade Unions

4. Representative from Staff Restaurant Committee

For full details can be found in Draft of Catering Service and Food Procurement Toolkit . Clearly this raises issues about training and time off for "TU Sustainability Reps"....