Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the City Solicitor & Head of HR.

Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 25 January 2018 and its comments will be reported.

The report of the City Solicitor & Head of HR was submitted setting out the Council’s annual Pay Policy Statement 2018/19 which must be approved by Full Council each financial year in line with legislation. There was also now a legal requirement to produce a Gender Pay Gap Report.

The City Solicitor & Head of HR discussed the levels and elements of remuneration for each officer role from April 2018 and drew Members attention to the gender pay gap report 2017. She explained the mean and median pay differences between male and female employees, highlighting that female pay was higher with a mean gender pay gap of -0.8% and media gender pay gap of -0.6%. She advised on the quartile figures that detailed the differences in male and female pay through lower to upper quartiles. The figures would need to be published by 31 March 2018.

Members agreed that the staff pay freeze had impacted on the figures and that if restrictions were lifted, it would see staff rewarded appropriately. They noted that a living wage, job evaluations and job descriptions had been introduced to support staff.

Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 25 January 2018 and its comments were reported.

RECOMMENDED to Council that:-

(1)          the Policy, Report and Appendices as presented to the meeting be adopted and published in accordance with the legislation; and

(2)          delegated authority be given to the City Solicitor & Head of HR to make necessary amendments to the pay policy statement following any changes in legislation or subsequent increases in pay.

To consider the report of the Transactional Services Manager.

The City Solicitor and Head of HR presented the report on the annual Pay Policy Statement 2018/19, which outlined the annual pay policy for approval by Full Council each financial year in line with legislation. Local Authorities are required by Section 38(1) of the Localism Act 2011 to set out a written statement each financial year relating to:-

·  the remuneration of chief officers;

·  the remuneration of its lowest paid employees; and

·  the relationship between the remuneration of its chief officers and the remuneration of its employees who are not chief officers

The City Solicitor and Head of HR referred Members to the appendix, attached to her report which set out the levels of remuneration for various posts from April 2018. 

She referred to the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017, which now required local authorities who employ over 250 or more employees to produce an annual Gender Pay Gap report which compared the difference in pay between females and males.

The Act required that an Authority must report on the following:-

·         Mean gender pay;

·         Median gender pay gap;

·         Mean bonuses gender pay gap;

·         Proportion of males receiving a bonus payment;

·         Proportion of females receiving a bonus payment; and 

·         Proportion of males and females in each quartile pay band

The findings included the average rate of pay for females being higher than males across the Council, the difference was less than 1%, and there were more males in the lower quartile of earnings. In response to a Member’s question, the City Solicitor and Head of HR informed him that the City Council had previously made a decision to pay the Exeter Living wage which increased the wage of the lowest paid employee, and a decision on further changes to the pay band was likely to form part of the pay negotiations.  A national offer by employers for a further two year pay deal had just been rejected by the Unions.

Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee noted the report and requested Executive and Council to note, and approve:-

(1)        the circulated Policy, Report and Appendices for adoption and publication in accordance with the legislation; and

(2)        Delegated authority being given to the City Solicitor and Head of HR to make necessary amendments to the pay policy statement following any changes in legislation or subsequent increases in pay.