Oxfordshire County Council logo

Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: County Hall, Oxford, OX1 1ND

Contact: Deborah Miller  Tel: 0792 0084239 ; Email;  deborah.miller@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1/19

Apologies for Absence and Temporary Appointments

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Lynda Atkins, Ian Hudspeth and Richard Webber.

2/19

Minutes pdf icon PDF 184 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 1 November 2018 (RC3) and to receive information arising from them.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting held on 1 November 2018 were approved and signed as an accurate record of the Meeting.

 

3/19

Gender Pay Gap pdf icon PDF 334 KB

This report gives an overview of Oxfordshire County Council's Gender Pay Gap which is required under The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. It gives a brief overview of the Gender Pay Gap and the requirements we are obliged to meet. Finally, this report gives a high-level overview of planned communication of our Gender Pay Gap. 

 

The Remuneration Committee is RECOMMENDED to note and agree the figures for publication.

 

Minutes:

The Committee had before them a report which set out the details of Oxfordshire County Council’s Gender Pay Gap which was required under The Quality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. The gender pay gap showed the difference between the average (mean and median) earnings of all male employees and all female employees. This was expressed as a percentage of all male employee’s earnings.

 

Ruth O’Loughlin, in introducing the report explained that Oxfordshire County Council did not have any Equal Pay Concerns. This was due to the Job Evaluation scheme that was in place (which was nationally recognised) where the Council were able to fairly assess the value/worth of council jobs, in relation to others in the organisation and set the grade and pay. Therefore, a fair and rational pay structure for the role could be given – regardless of the incumbent - and meet our commitment to equal pay.  Figures were however, very slightly down on last year due to the workforce changing considerably as a result of the collapse of Carillion.

 

In response to questions from Members, Ms O’Loughlin confirmed that Oxfordshire compared favourably statistically with our comparator authorities.

 

Members asked officers if the figures could be sent to all members of the County Council and to receive a report to a future meeting with figures showing how Oxfordshire were doing in comparison with other authorities.

 

RESOLVED:  

 

(a)          to note and agree the figures for publication;

(b)          send the figures to all Members of the County Council.

EXEMPT ITEM

RESOLVED:             that the public be excluded for the duration of item RC6       since it is likely that if they were present during that item there would be disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and specified below in relation to those items and since it is considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

 

 

4/19

EXEMPT MINUTE

Minutes:

The Exempt minutes of the meeting held on 1 November 2018 were approved and signed as a correct record.

 

The information contained in the report was exempt in that it fell within the following prescribed category:

 

1       Information relating to any individual

 

It was considered that in this case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that such disclosure would infringe the rights of the individual to privacy contrary to the general law and the duty of the authority to respect human rights and to comply with that law and contrary to the authority’s duties as a fair employer.

 

5/19

Pay Policy Statement pdf icon PDF 121 KB

The information contained in the report is exempt in that it falls within the following prescribed category:

 

4       Information relating to any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matters arising between the authority or a Minister of the Crown and employees of, or officer-holders under the authority

 

It is considered that in this case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that such disclosure would distort the proper process of free negotiations between the authority with another party for the purposes described and would prejudice the position of the authority in those negotiations and other negotiations of a similar nature in future.

 

Report of the Strategic Director, Resources (RC6)

 

This report gives an overview of the Pay Policy Statement which is required under The Localism Act 2011. It gives a brief overview of the revisions that have been made and has the Pay Policy Statement as an Appendix.

 

The Remuneration Committee is RECOMMENDED to consider the draft report and agree it for submission to Council.

 

Minutes:

 

 

The information contained in the report was exempt in that it fell within the following prescribed category:

 

4       Information relating to any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matters arising between the authority or a Minister of the Crown and employees of, or office-holders under the authority.

 

And it was considered that in this case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information, in that such disclosure would distort the proper process of free negotiations between the authority with another party for the purposes described and would prejudice the position of the authority in those negotiations and other negotiations of a similar nature in the future.

 

The Committee had before it a report which set out the Pay Policy Statement which was required under The Localism Act 2011 and would be approved by Full Council in February.  The report gave a brief overview of the revisions that had been made, together with the Pay Policy Statement as an Appendix.

 

The Committee discussed and confirmed the arrangements of the payment of the Chief Executive and how that was arranged across both authorities.

 

The Committee requested that future reports include comparisons against the year before.

 

RESOLVED:  to agree the report for submission to Council.

 

*The Committee paid Tribute to Steve Munn, Director of Human Resources for his excellent work on the Council and wished well for the future.