Issue - meetings

This report outlines progress regarding the pay negotiations for the financial year 2018/2019.

Discussion:

Members considered a report which provided details of progress on pay negotiations for 2018/2019, following discussion at the Joint Consultative Committee, which had been held immediately before this meeting.

The Assistant Director, Transformation stated that negotiations had reached point 6 of the Pay Negotiations Protocol as set out in section 3 of the report and provided details of the joint pay claim from GMB and Unison as detailed in paragraph 4.1 of the report (claims 1 and 2) and claims 3, 4 and 5, as set out in the addendum report.

She gave details of the costs of meeting these claims, as follows:

·         Claim 1: A 5% increase on all pay points – £2.5m excluding on-costs.

·         Claim 2: The deletion of all pay points below the Foundation Living Wage (FLW) of £8.45 - £122,000.

·         Claim 3: To delete Range 1 from the MedPay pay ranges and move staff within Range 1 to the entry salary at Range 2 - £50,000 excluding on costs.

·         Claim 4: To delete Range 1 from the MedPay pay ranges and move staff within Range 1 to the entry salary at Range 2, and then to apply a 1% increase to the remaining pay ranges - £557,000.

·         Claim 5: To delete Range 1 from the MedPay pay ranges and move staff within Range 1 to the entry salary at Range 2 and then the remaining pay pot to be evenly distributed amongst the whole of the staffing cohort - £330 per person.

She also stated that the Trade Unions had also requested a review of MedPay, as outlined in paragraph 6.1 of the addendum report.

In response to a question from a Member, the Assistant Director, Transformation confirmed that the Trade Unions had submitted claims 4 and 5 on 23 January 2018 which was outside the timescales specified in the Pay Negotiations Protocol. However, the Council had accepted these particular claims.

In response to a question from a Member relating to whether an external review of MedPay could be undertaken, it was stated that the outcome of the staff survey (agenda item 8 on the Agenda) had provided evidence that MedPay was a good scheme, there was a lack of funding to undertake an external review and there could be issues relating to a perception of bias if an internal review was undertaken.

In response to a question from a Member, the Assistant Director, Transformation stated that on-costs added 26%, on average, per employee.

In response to a question from a Member, the Assistant Director, Transformation stated that the MedPay scheme had been introduced in 2014.

A Diversity Impact Assessment had been undertaken on the proposals as set out in Appendix 6 to the report.

Decision:

The Committee recommended to Full Council that £829,000 is allocated to pay rises and this is distributed in accordance with paragraph 7.2 of the report.