Issue - meetings

That the annual Pay Policy Statement for 2017/18 be approved and adopted.

The Senior Manager, Human Resources & Organisational Development presented the annual report which sought approval of the Council’s Pay Policy Statement to enable its publication by 1 April 2017.  Whilst the contents met legal requirements, additional information had also been included as good practice and to make the document more meaningful; these related to bonus payments and performance related pay, salary sacrifice schemes and the approach to talent management.

The Chief Executive said that the Statement summarised the organisation’s approach to current pay and remuneration arrangements and he reported on legislative changes which now required more public bodies to publish their arrangements.

Councillor Richard Jones referred to the criteria for awarding annual increments in the case of Chief Officers, and felt this should only apply where all appraisals had been completed within their respective teams.  As a further incentive, he said that a partial increment could be given until such time when a Chief Officer had completed a satisfactory appraisal.  The Chief Executive spoke about a clear expectation for Chief Officers to oversee the completion of appraisals in their teams as a key part of their own appraisals.  He said that the suggestions could be given consideration at a later stage and spoke about the work undertaken on appraisals to improve both quality and completion rates.

In response to a query by Councillor Gareth Roberts on the ‘IR35’ rule, it was explained that this only applied to a minority of individuals currently engaged with the Council and that work was underway to deal with this.

Councillor Mike Peers stated the importance of appraisals in helping to drive performance.  On the performance related pay section of the Statement, he said it should be clarified that the appraisal system linking to pay only applied to Chief Officers.

RESOLVED:

That the annual Pay Policy Statement for 2017/18 be approved and adopted.