Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence

There were no apologies for absence.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests and/or disclosable pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda

No declarations were made

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a total period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the Committee on any matter relevant to the work of the Committee.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given.  It is not required to give notice of the intention to make use of public speaking provision, however, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours notice is encouraged.

There were no members of public present

To consider the updated Pay Policy Statement

The Committee considered a report on the updated Pay Policy Statement for 2012-13.

Cabinet had recently made some changes to the Council’s Termination and Severance policies and as a result the Pay Policy Statement Section 8 – Redundancy Payments and Payments on Termination, had been updated to reflect these changes.

Cabinet had decided to reduce the Council’s voluntary redundancy terms as follows:

• the payment for voluntary redundancies was to be reduced from a multiplier (of the statutory formula) of 2.0 to 1.8.
• the maximum number of weeks payable would be capped at 50 weeks rather then the 60 weeks currently.

Cabinet had also agreed to amend the application of the discretionary power relating to the termination of employment on the grounds of efficiency.  Under the Council’s current policy, employees can only be released on grounds of efficiency where they are aged 55 and over and are members of the Local Government Pension Schem.  Under the new arrangement, termination payments, on the grounds of efficiency, can be made up to the same maximum value applicable under the Council’s voluntary redundancy scheme to any employee regardless of age. 

The Committee was also asked to approve amendments to the Pay Policy Statement relating to Compromise Agreements. 

Currently the Pay Policy Statement confirmed that the final decision and approval for any compromise agreement and associated costs rests with the Chief Executive.  Given that the Chief Executive cannot approve a comprise agreement for themselves, the Pay Policy Statement had been updated to state that the final decision and approval for any termination payments and the terms of any associated compromise agreement for the Chief Executive would be subject to approval by the Staffing Committee.

The Committee suggested that additionally the details of the Chief Executive’s termination payment and terms of the compromise agreement should be reported for noting to the next meeting of full Council and that the indicative figures be included in the report.  The relevant paragraph is amended to read as follows:

“Termination payments in addition to a payment in relation to contractual notice pay (and including any outstanding holiday pay) for the Chief Executive and the terms of any associated compromise agreement will be subject to approval by the Staffing Committee and reported to the next meeting of full Council for noting and to include the indicative figures.”

RESOLVED: 

That, subject to the additional wording in relation to the approval of the Chief Executive’s termination payments, Council be recommended to approve the updated Pay Policy Statement for 2012-13.

The reports relating to the remaining items on the agenda have been withheld from public circulation and deposit pursuant to Section 100(B)(2) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that the matters may be determined with the press and public excluded.

The Committee may decide that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items pursuant to Section 100(A)4 of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 and public interest would not be served in publishing the information.

RESOLVED:

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following item pursuant to Section 100(A) 4 of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended on the grounds that they involved the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 4 of Part 1 and 2 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 and public interest would not be served in publishing this information

To consider the report of the Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer

The Committee considered the report of the Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer.

RESOLVED:

That Council be advised to approve the recommendations, as set out in the Report.