Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to make a recommendation to re-establish the link between the pay system and the national Joint Negotiating Committees for the purpose of determining annual inflationary pay increases from 1/4/20 onwards and for the Committee to note the commencement of a review into the pay system for senior managers (heads of service and above).

Dan Paul, Chief People Officer, introduced the report, as set out in the agenda. 

Officers responded to questions from the Committee:

·                The Chief People Officer was unsure as to the reasoning behind the de-coupling and believed that it was sensible to re-establish the link between the senior manager pay system and the national Joint Negotiating Committees.

·                In response to a question regarding performance related pay, it was stated that a pay policy system had been put in place which allowed for the contribution of performance related pay, however this had not happened.

·                It was confirmed that the current position was that if an employee was employed on the bottom of the pay range, their pay would increase by annual inflationary pay increases at present. The Chief People Officer stated that apart from being potentially inequitable, this route contained equalities risks and therefore the scheme may not be operating as intended and formed the scope of the review of the Senior Manager pay system.

·                Reference was made to information published by the tax payers alliance, which stated that Haringey employed more senior managers over £100,000 than any other London borough. In response, the Chief People Officer stated that he was unaware of this data and suggested that there were different ways of reporting this data. He believed that payment of senior managers within the council was in line with other London boroughs. 

·                In response to a further question regarding the comparison of senior manager pay across other London boroughs, it was stated that looking at the specific pay bands was outside the scope of review, however the Chief People Officer would provide a comparison in writing to committee members. 

·                It was explained that the inflationary based national pay increase was a separate process to performance related pay. Concern was raised that this could result in a large amount of wage inflation at the top of the scale. In response to the concerns raised, clarification on the recommendation was given. The committee was being asked to re-establish the link and note that a review was about to start on the senior manager pay system. It was confirmed that the views of the committee would be taken into consideration as part of the review.

·                The Vice-Chair requested that a review of the performance at the top of the organisation be added to the work programme of the committee.

·                The Committee requested to be kept fully informed of the arrangements to implement any performance related pay.

Councillor Dennison expressed concern about the approach being proposed and did not agree with the review of the senior manager pay system taking place after an approval to re-establish the link between senior manager pay system and the national Joint Negotiating Committees.

RESOLVED:

1.         The Committee approved the reestablishment of the link between the senior pay system and the national Joint Negotiating Committees (JNC) for the purpose of determining annual inflationary pay increases from 1/4/20 onwards and therefore to apply the increase agreed by the JNC’s from 1/4/20 of 2.75%.

2.         To note the commencement and scope of a review of the Senior Manager pay system, with results of the review to be brought to a future meeting.