Agenda item

All Heads of Service were required to leave the Chamber during consideration of this item, due to their personal interest in the report. 

The Chief Executive presented the report, providing some detail on the context and background to the issue.  He reminded Council that pay for Heads of Service had not been included in the main Total Reward exercise, as Cabinet had agreed to conclude negotiations for the rest of workforce before reviewing senior pay.  The Total Reward agreement had now been implemented, and Cabinet had therefore agreed to commission Hay to undertake a job evaluation exercise to review the Head of Service posts.  The results of this exercise were included in the report, and Council was being asked to acknowledge the outcome and implement the recommended changes.

The Chief Executive highlighted that this had been an independent process, undertaken by an external partner.  The results had also been evaluated and endorsed by the Independent Remuneration Panel.   Due to the conflict of interest for the Monitoring Officer, Geldards had been instructed by the Chief Executive to provide independent legal advice in relation to the issue of Heads of Service pay, and their comments had been included in the report.  Kim Howell of Geldards was also in attendance at the Council meeting to answer Members’ questions and provide any points of clarification on the legal advice given.

Finally the Chief Executive noted the issues also set out in the report regarding market rates, although it was recognised that this was an issue across the Council.  However Council was alerted to the risks surrounding market rates for Heads of Service, particularly regarding recruitment and retention, although there were no specific proposals before Council at this time regarding pay levels.

Members were invited to ask any questions they may have on the content of the report, before the debate on the proposal before them was opened.

Points of clarification were provided in response to Member questions, including:

-       This report was produced independently from the Council, endorsed by the Independent Remuneration Panel and subject to independent legal advice.

-       The report was not legally binding.  The only legally binding evaluation would be that of an employment tribunal determining an equal value claim, which would also entitle the claimants to retrospective compensation.   This was not the case for this report, and Council were being asked whether or not to act upon its recommendations.

-       There would be no impact upon roles below Head of service level, as these had already been evaluated through a separate job evaluation process.

-       There was a risk around equal pay claims if the senior roles were not subject to evaluation.

-       The issues raised around market rates for senior pay were entirely separate from the job evaluation exercise undertaken by Hay.  Pay rates were being highlighted as a risk, and it would be a matter for Council whether to address this in the future.  The issue to hand was to resolve the gap in completing job evaluation.

-       The cost of the Hay job evaluation report was £8,000 plus VAT.

-       It was confirmed that decisions relating to Chief Officer remuneration were a matter for Council (Constitution: Article 4: 4.2.XII).

The report was moved by the Leader and seconded by the Deputy Leader.  A number of Members spoke on the report.  Points raised included:

-       There should be parity in the pay of people working at the same level and with comparable responsibilities. 

-       The Council had a responsibility as an employer to act in a fair, balanced and principled way, and in accordance with employment law. 

-       This report was the final part of the job evaluation process which had been undertaken across the whole Council, in an open and transparent way.

-       The recruitment and retention issues associated with market rates of pay were also a concern, and the Council needed to look at different ways to address this going forward. 

Resolved

1.         To acknowledge the outcome of a recent job evaluation exercise for Heads of Service and move three identified posts to HDS02 in line with the outcome of that exercise.

2.         To note the ongoing recruitment and retention issues for this staffing group due to market rate values being inconsistent with NCC’s current pay levels.