Agenda item

Purpose: To seek Council’s approval of the Statutory Pay Policy Statement for publication from 1st April 2020.

The Committee considered a report (Agenda item 4) concerning the Statutory Pay Policy 2020.

Rebecca Bird in introducing the item noted that this was an annual report which the Council, under the Localism Act 2011, was required to publish by the 01 April. The format of the report was substantially the same as previous iterations. The most notable changes pertained to the changes to the senior management structure following the report on Senior management posts of Chief Executive, Executive Director (Place), Service Director and Service Lead which was discussed at the 19 December 2019 Executive meeting.

Some of the ratio’s relating to remuneration would not be able to be updated until the pay award was agreed and this was not likely to happen before June.

Councillor Abbs queried  whether the Chief Executive’s salary had not already been agreed. Officers confirmed that changes had been agreed at the 19 December meeting but that it would not be finalised until the pay award was agreed.

Councillor Simpson asked whether the new structure was relatively cost-neutral.

Rebecca Bird commented that she had not been involved in the revisions to the senior management posts but that she understood that the changes would be cost neutral in the long term. Both the Leader and Deputy Leader had been involved with South East Employers when they had undertaken the work on the restructure.

Councillor Abbs asked whether these salaries were inclusive of the pension scheme and any other benefits as he believed that a package would be more indicative and it would also enhance transparency. Officers noted that not all employees were signed up to the pension scheme which could make the calculations difficult. The pension contributions were also adjusted on a sliding scale which could affect ratios.  Rebecca Bird said that staff were auto-enrolled onto the scheme but that they could opt out of it if they wished to do so.  Councillor Brooks asked about the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) and whether there was a qualification period for this. It was agreed that some information on the Local Government Pension Scheme should be set out under a separate heading after ‘Pay ratios in the Council’ and before ‘Review’.

Councillor Brooks stated that he had issues with paragraphs 3.1.7, 3.1.9 3.13 and 3.14 and asked whether these were robust enough in their wording.

Paragraph 3.1.7 stated that ‘additional Special Recruitment Payment (SRP) of £5,000 - £8,000 may be paid to any Service Director subject to approval by Head of Paid Service in liaison with the Leader of the Council.’ Councillor Brooks queried how many of these were being paid. He was concerned that Members would not have visibility of the number of payments that were being made. Members requested that the word ‘liaison’ be replaced with the word ‘consultation’. They also asked that the number of payments be reported back to the Committee on an annual basis. Officers noted that these types of decisions should be published as Delegated Officer Decisions which would give Members some visibility. There were also only a small number of Service Director Posts so there were unlikely to be many of these payments made. Rebecca Bird commented that to date two payments had been considered albeit that neither had been agreed as yet. Work on internal processes was ongoing.

Paragraph 3.1.9 stated that ‘Appointments will normally be made to the minimum point of the grade. Managers may take into account the previous experience and skills of the employee to offer appointment above the salary minimum for the post.’ Councillor Brooks stated that he would feel more comfortable if HR were involved in this process as he wanted to ensure that the necessary checks and balances were in place.  Rebecca Bird clarified that managers did have discretion to pay above the minimum of a pay scale and that HR were kept in the loop when this occurred. These payments would always have to be signed off by the relevant Head of Service (Hos) and Budget Managers checked to ensure the necessary funding was in place. Moira Fraser stated that the Scheme of Delegation (Part 3 of the Constitution) already delegated authority to ‘Determine the starting point within grade (paragraph 3.3.2.6) to HoS. Members stated that they would like to see a line included which explained that ‘all of these decisions would be signed off by the relevant Head of Service’ to aid clarity and transparency.

Paragraph 3.1.13 stated that ‘An additional increment may be awarded in any one year to an employee, at the discretion of the Head of Service/ Service Director, on the grounds of special merit or ability, provided the maximum of the grade is not exceeded.’ Members queried if this was robust enough and concluded that, as it would have to be signed off at HoS or Service Director Level, that it was.

Paragraph 3.1.14 stated that ‘Additional payment may be made for additional hours, overtime, undertaking higher responsibilities, and for non-standard working arrangements such as stand-by or evening work, or for exceptional working conditions.’ Councillor Brooks queried if Senior Managers could claim for their attendance at evening meetings. Rebecca Bird explained that the flexi-time scheme and overtime payments for attendance at evening meetings did not apply to anyone on Grade M and above and that they also did not receive any time off in lieu. Councillor Brooks stated that he believed that there needed to be more clarity around item 3.1.14 and who qualified for overtime payments. Councillor Brooks said that there needed to be clearer reference to job grades in this policy.

Councillor Garth Simpson noted that there was a typographical error in paragraph 3.1.18 where reference was made to paragraph 3.3.4 which did not exist. Officers agreed to amend this.

RESOLVED to recommend to Council that the Statutory Pay Policy, as amended at this meeting, be published on the 01^st April 2020