Agenda item

Report of the Director of Human Resources.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Human Resources which sought approval of the draft Pay Policy Statement 2019/20, the Statement will be submitted to the February Policy and Resources Committee, and March Court of Common Council.

A Member raised their concerns on this being an all-encompassing Statement covering both the private and public work of the City Corporation noting there should be a clear demarcation with two separate documents to deal with that which applies under the Localism Act and that which applies privately. The Member added that this suggestion was made in order for there to be less confusion and was not to deviate from the City Corporation’s spirit of openness.

Responding to the Member’s suggestion, the Director of Human Resources explained that this was a policy decision taken by Members when the Localism Act came into force in 2011 and the distinctions on how the City Corporation determines its pay underlines the Statement. The Director advised that information could be extracted from the Statement, but this would identify staff.

The Comptroller and City Solicitor explained that this was a difficult issue noting that the City Corporation applied the Local Government Act across its functions even those which were private such as the schools and it would be difficult to split this out. He cited the example of staff, explaining that there were officers who spent the majority of their time on city’s cash work and their contracts were those of local government with a local government pension. The Comptroller advised that whilst it was good to separate out where possible, it was difficult in practice especially with senior officers and this decision had been taken for the purpose of transparency.

Responding to the comments, the Member explained that they supported openness and transparency but there were practical difficulties that needed to be addressed and a process should commence to make the demarcation line where it was practical to enable clarity.

Discussion took place amongst Members and the following comments were made:

·         If demarcation were to take place, would officers be placed on different terms and conditions depending on whether they worked on City’s Cash or City’s Fund. This would lead to confusion and would further complicate matters.

·         To split out pay would create more bureaucracy; the Pay Statement reflected what the City Corporation does, particularly around pensions and this was already complicated.

·         It was suggested that hyperlinks be included in the document where details such as the gender pay gap were reported.

·         In response to a Member’s query on London Weighting, the Director of Human Resources explained that this applied to all grades, but there was an Inner London Weighting and Outer London Weighting applied depending on the location of staff.

·         Short discussion took place on whether the Establishment Committee should approve the pay increases for teachers as per its Terms of Reference or whether the Committee had delegated this authority to the Boards of Governors. The Chair asked the Town Clerk to look at past minutes to see whether formal approval had been given by the Committee.

The Director of Human Resources responding to the discussion explained that the issue would be separating out staff, noting that in the past it had been presumed to be a 60/40  City Fund/City’s Cash split and only 60% of salary information was published but this was changed to 100% due to improve transparency.

RESOLVED – That the Committee agree the draft Pay Policy Statement 2019/20 to ensure the City Corporation meets its requirements under the Localism Act 2011, to enable it to be forwarded to the Policy and Resources Committee and Court of Common Council for further necessary approvals.