Agenda item

To present a Pay Policy Statement for 2019/20.

Minutes:

There was submitted a report by the Deputy Chief Executive (Corporate Services) (A.3) presented to the Committee by the Head of People, Performance and Projects (Anastasia Simpson) on the proposed Pay Policy Statement for 2019/2020 and pay assimilation.

 

The Committee was reminded that Section 38(1) of the Localism Act 2011 required local authorities to produce a Pay Policy Statement and that those matters which were required to be included in the statutory Pay Policy Statement were as follows:

 

  • A local authority’s policy on the level and elements of remuneration for each Chief Officer;

 

  • A local authority’s policy on the remuneration of its lowest-paid employees (together with its definition of “lowest-paid employees” and its reasons for adopting that definition);

 

  • A local authority’s policy on the relationship between the remuneration of its Chief Officers and other Officers; and

 

  • A local authority’s policy on other aspects of Chief Officers’ remuneration: remuneration on recruitment increases and additions to remuneration, use of performance related pay and bonuses, termination payments and transparency.

 

It was reported that the Pay Policy Statement 2019/20 had been designed to give an overview of the Council’s framework regarding pay and rewards for staff within the Council. The framework was based on the principle of fairness and that rewards should be proportional to the weight of each role and each individual’s performance. The framework aimed to ensure the ability of the Council to recruit talented individuals whilst reassuring the citizens of Tendring that their money was being used efficiently.

 

It was further reported that a pay assimilation exercise had been carried out by the Council, in order to move across to the new nationally agreed pay bands for 2019/20, which had resulted in multiple inflationary variations across the pay scale. The new spine would replace entirely the current spine and accordingly employees would assimilate across from their current Spinal Column Point (SCP) to the new corresponding SCP in April 2019. Changes included:-

 

New Pay Spine 1 April 2019

 

·           A bottom rate of £9.00 per hour (£17,364) on new Spinal Column Point (SCP) 1 (equivalent to old SCP’s 6 & 7).

·           ‘Pairing off’ old SCP’s 6-17 incl. to create new SCP’s 1-6 inclusive.

·           Equal steps of 2.0% between each new SCP’s 1 to 22 inclusive (equivalent to old SCP’s 6-28 inclusive.)

·           By creating equal steps between those pay points, new SCP’s 10, 13, 16, 18 and 21 were generated to which no old SCP’s would assimilate.

·           On new SCP’s 23 and above (equivalent to old SCP’s 29 and above), 2.0% increase on 2018 rate.

 

Members were informed that by adopting the new National Joint Council (NJC) pay spine locally, two issues had been identified by officers (other authorities had reported similar issues):

  • The current Grade 3 would lose all potential for progression and become a spot salary.
  • The current Grade 5 would be made up of 7 SCP’s. This was above the NJC recommendation of a maximum of 6 SCP’s in one grade.

 

The NJC had therefore recommended that local employers considered various options and presented formal proposals around which there would be local negotiations with a view to reaching agreement. Officers had completed work on the assimilation to the new pay spine in October 2018 and had submitted proposals to both the Regional Unison Branch and Regional Employers for consideration. Following a series of meetings those proposals had been agreed by Tendring District Council, as the ‘employer’ and UNISON.

 

It was reported that the proposals recognised the principle of fairness and that rewards should be proportional to the required skill and expertise of each role. The Regional Employers had determined that this Council’s proposals were sound and fair and UNISON fully supported the approach being taken by the Council.

 

The model for Tendring

 

The Committee was made aware that the revised grade structure adopted all new SCPs in order to prevent deviation from the full NJC pay spine, with the adjusted grade boundaries including an additional increment for employees currently at the top of the adjusted grades 3, 4 and 5. This allowed for a % increase that was comparable to the NJC proposal throughout.

 

The proposed model therefore:

 

  • Recognised the NJC proposal and fulfilled our obligation to adopt the new pay spine.
  • Where possible, pay progression had been built into the revised grade structure.*
  • Minimised disruption to the existing grading structure.

 

*Grade 1c was the only exception having 1 SCP in the new model however the midpoint for this grade had increased by 7.01%.

 

The Committee was advised that the original salaries budget for 2018/19 had been £15.233m, rising to an estimate of £16.421m in 2019/20, an increase of £1.188m. Of this increase, £648,000 could be attributed to the cost of assimilating to the new pay spine (gross pay only). This figure included both the permanent staffing establishment and casual workforce. An element of the £648k pay award increase related to the estimated cost of adjusting grade boundaries for grades 3, 4 and 5. However, it was proposed to withhold awarding the new SCP’s at the top of those grades until 2020/21, resulting in an anticipated underspend against the base salaries budget of £51,000 in 2019/20.

 

Members raised questions which were responded to by Officers.

 

It was moved by Councillor Broderick, seconded by Councillor Ferguson and unanimously:-

 

RESOLVED that this Committee recommends to Council that -

 

(a)    the Pay Policy Statement 2019/20, as set out at Appendix A, be adopted;

 

(b)     the new Pay Spine that will come into effect from 1 April 2019, as set out in Appendix B, be noted.

 

Supporting documents: