Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Gill Sanders (Councillor Christie substituting) and Councillor Wilmshurst (Councillor Stratford substituting).

Councillor Williams declared an interest in Item 8 in respect of pay arrangements for adult learning tutors as his wife was a pottery teacher and took no part in the discussion or voting.

To agree the Minutes of the meeting of the Remuneration Committee held on 1 February 2013 (RC3).

The Minutes of the meeting held on 1 February 2013 were approved and signed.

Report by the Head of Human Resources (RC6).

Remuneration Committee is asked to consider whether to adopt the Pennies from Heaven charitable doantion scheme and how they wish to identify charities to receive donations.

The Remuneration Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)        agree to adopt Pennies From Heaven as a method of charitable donation from pay;

(b)        nominate a short-list of charities to benefit which will be the subject of a ballot by employees to arrive at 2 or 3 nominees. This process to be reviewed Annually.

Remuneration Committee had before them a report asking that they consider whether to adopt the Pennies from Heaven charitable donation scheme and if so how they wished to identify charities to receive donations.

Responding to questions Steve Munn confirmed that the Council could target local charities. The scheme would be opt in. The current scheme “Just Giving” had a low take up of a few hundred employees. He explained that the organisation charged a fee to private companies but would take a percentage of the Gift Aid donation from the Council as a public organisation.

During discussion members liked the scheme in principle but felt that before any decision could be taken further information was needed. They would want information on the administration costs, the likely take-up and on the experience of other Councils who had introduced the scheme. They also queried whether there was some way to do a similar scheme in house although accepting that any such scheme could not take up officer time.

RESOLVED:             to agree that no decision be taken on whether to proceed until the Committee had detailed financial information.

Report of the County Solicitor & Monitoring Officer (RC7 to be circulated separately)

The Council’s Constitution allocates to the Committee the responsibility for appointments to outside bodies other than to those identified by the Cabinet as ‘strategic’. 

The report identifies the bodies to which appointments now need to be made and reviews the process for making them.  It also sets out any proposed new additions. 

RESOLVED:            to

(a)               make appointments to the non-strategic outside bodies listed in the Annex to these Minutes and to review appointments to the remaining bodies at the next meeting;

(b)               designate the Castle Committee as a Category ‘B’ outside body and appoint the Cabinet Member for Community Services as the member representative; 

(c)               endorse the agreement whereby Councillor Greene acts as the delegate of the Chairman of the Council at meetings of the Blue Plaque Society Board;

(d)               agree the review of the category ‘C’ outside bodies and the mechanism for appointments.

It is RECOMMENDED that the public be excluded for the duration of items 8 and 9 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.

THE REPORT AND ANNEXES TO THE ITEM HAVE NOT BEEN MADE PUBLIC AND SHOULD BE REGARDED AS ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ BY MEMBERS AND OFFICERS ENTITLED TO RECEIVE THEM.

THIS ALSO MEANS THAT THE CONTENTS SHOULD NOT BE DISCUSSED WITH OTHERS AND NO COPIES SHOULD BE MADE.

RESOLVED:  that the public be excluded for the duration of items 8 and 9 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.

PUBLIC SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS HELD IN PRIVATE

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 by the Head of Human Resources (RC8).

The Remuneration Committee is asked to consider the payment of the second and third  stage of a pay agreement entered into in December 2009 by the then Head of Adult Learning.  The Pay Agreement emanated from a review of Adult Learning pay scales, which sought to bring pay scales into line with nationally agreed Further Education Teaching scales.  At the time, to fully implement the new pay agreement placed too great a financial burden on the service and it was agreed with UCU (Trade Union representing Adult Learning Tutors) to introduce the new pay scale in three phases.  Phase 1 was paid in December 2009.  However, the remaining two phases were put on hold. 

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.

The Remuneration Committee considered the payment of the second and third  stage of a pay agreement entered into in December 2009 by the then Head of Adult Learning. The Pay Agreement emanated from a review of Adult Learning pay scales, which sought to bring pay scales into line with nationally agreed Further Education Teaching scales.  At the time, to fully implement the new pay agreement placed too great a financial burden on the service and it was agreed with UCU (Trade Union representing Adult Learning Tutors) to introduce the new pay scale in three phases.  Phase 1 was paid in December 2009. However, the remaining two phases were put on hold.

The Remuneration Committee agreed the approach to be taken to the remaining two phases.

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 by the Head of Human Resources (RC9)

The Remuneration is asked to consider the attached report.

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.

The Remuneration Committee approved an increase agreed in advance of the national pay agreement.