Agenda item
Pay policy statement
Minutes:
The Committee considered the draft 2019/20 pay policy statement received and noted a report that outlined the draft policy statement. It was noted that under Section 38(1) of the Localism Act 2011, the Council is required to adopt a pay policy statement for each financial year. The questions and comments on the report are outlined as follows:
The Committee noted:
· That the Council’s first pay policy statement was in 2012/13 and subsequent pay policy statements were agreed for each of the subsequent years;
· That should guidance or an updated Code be published after the 2019/20 pay policy has been considered by the General Purposes Committee and/or Full Council, which requires minor amendments, it was noted that it is proposed that General Purposes Committee should then delegate the authority to make amendments to the Chief Executive following consultation with the Divisional Director of HR and Organisational Development, Chair of the General Purposes Committee and Monitoring Officer;
· Should any fundamental changes be required, the pay policy statement would then be sent back to General Purposes Committee for consideration;
· The 2019/20 proposed pay policy statement has to be approved by General Purposes Committee and adopted by LBTH by the end of March 2019. At the meeting of Full Council on 20 March 2019, the statement it was noted would be considered for adoption. The Committee also indicated that it would wish to revisit the pay policy following any revisions;
· The Tower Rewards proposals that included (i) changes to terms and conditions; (ii) benefits to support staff and (iii) reward excellence whilst embedding the TOWER values;
· That with regards to Tower Rewards proposals the staff will be kept updated through (i) internal communications; (ii) dedicated pages on the intranet, (iii) updates in internal newsletters and (iv) staff sessions to give views, ask questions and find out more;
· There will also be a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section on the intranet with questions that have been received from staff, together with the answers;
· That staff will be kept posted on the consultation with the trade unions;
· That the Code of Conduct for Members emphasised the need for Councillors to avoid behaviour which could be viewed as conferring an advantage or disadvantage on an officer. Officers should not try to involve Councillors in day-to-day staff/ management issues. Councillors it was noted are recommended to strongly discourage such approaches. Officers should be advised to pursue matters with their management through the established procedures for resolving grievances etc. Officers must not raise matters concerning their employment with individual Councillors; to do so may result in disciplinary action being taken;
· That if officers tried to involve Councillors in day-to-day staff/ management issues then they should speak to the Monitoring Officer;
· Requested that Councillors should have the guidance re-circulated to them on what to do officers tried to involve them in day-to-day staff issues;
Accordingly, the Chair Moved and it was:-
RESOLVED to:
1. Note the draft 2019/20 pay policy statement and recommend that Full Council agrees the draft statement on March 20 2019;
2. Agree should any minor changes to the 2019/20 pay policy statement be required as a result of future government guidance or an updated Local Government Transparency Code. Then these amendments should be delegated to the Chief Executive, after consultation with the Divisional Director HR and Organisational Development, Chair of the GP Committee and Monitoring Officer; and
3. Agree that should any fundamental changes be required, then the pay policy statement would be sent back to the GP Committee for consideration.
Supporting documents:
- Pay Policy Statement Report 2019-20 Final, item 4.5 PDF 120 KB
- Appendix 1 Pay Policy Report 2019-20, item 4.5 PDF 117 KB
- Appendix 2 – Pay Policy Statement 201819, item 4.5 PDF 116 KB
- Appendix 3 – Local Government Transparency Code 2015, item 4.5 PDF 845 KB
- Appendix 4 - 100k plus final figures 01.04.18 - 31.01.19, item 4.5 PDF 21 KB