Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence and notification of any substitutes in accordance with the Constitution.

There were none.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were none.

To approve the minutes of the meeting of the Committee on 8 December 2021.

RESOLVED that the minutes and exempt minutes of the previous meeting held on 8 December 2021 be confirmed and signed as a correct record, subject to the removal of the words ‘undertaken reviewed assets’ in paragraph 3 of minute 28.

To consider the Pay Policy Statement 2022/23 and to make any observations to be forwarded to Full Council. The Committee is recommended to endorse the Pay Policy Statement 2022/23 in advance of its determination by the Full Council.

The Employment Committee considered the first draft of the Pay Policy Statement at its meeting on 8 December 2021. The Committee raised a number of questions and requested several amendments. The revised version was circulated to the Committee in the agenda pack, and updated again in the addendum.

The Head of Organisational Development and Human Resources explained that the revised version:

·       Included clarity around the distinction between the appointment process and designation process of statutory officers.

·       Included details of full-time equivalent post in the salary budget table to provide context of year-on-year increases in salaries.

·       Resolved the rounding issue identified at the last Committee to ensure gender division totalled 100%.

·       Provided additional information in relation to exceptional increases to provide clarity over which duties were subject to a 10% increase and to provide a link to the roles as outlined in the Council’s constitution.

·       Contained a formatting error on page 3 whereby a bullet point had converted to a heading. This would be rectified prior to Council.

In response to the Committee’s request for additional information an email had been circulated to members which contained:

·       an aide memoir to the Committee in relation to contractual increments

·       information to help members understand the proportion of salary budget increase dedicated to either growth in salaries or growth in head count.

Officers also confirmed that the 10% additional payment for statutory roles was included in the calculation of average salaries and the ratio of the average wider senior management and average pay of other employees. This ratio was confirmed as being 3:1.

During the discussion, the following comments and observations were made:

·       That the additional 10% payment for statutory roles should be reviewed during the external job evaluation and pay benchmarking exercise. It was confirmed that those are current contractual arrangements, and the Council would need to go through usual procedures to consult on any changes.

·       That in relation to payment of fees for elections, this was separate from the additional 10% payment for statutory roles due to the structure of election funding.

·       That an additional explanation should be included under the salary budget table to provide information as to the reason why there was an unusual increase in 2020/21.

·       That work required for real living wage accreditation would be scoped. The challenges around requirements for contractors to pay the real living wage were noted.

Subject to minor amendments resulting from the Committee’s observations, Members were satisfied that the Pay Policy Statement 2022/23 should be presented to Council on 10 February 2022 for adoption.

To consider any item(s) which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be considered as a matter of urgency – Local Government Act 1972, Section 100B(4)(b).

Note: Urgent business must be submitted in writing but may be supplemented by an oral report.

An urgent item was circulated in writing to the Committee prior to the meeting concerning the Pay Award 2022/23. The Chairman considered it necessary for the Committee to receive this item due to the urgent nature of the pay award negotiations.

RESOLVED that members of the press and public be excluded from the meeting for this item of business under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that: 

1)       It involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 4 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act; and

2)    the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

 The Committee received a verbal update on the 2022/23 Pay Award process.