Richard Baum

I have today received answers to a number of questions I have recently put to the Council regarding Job Evaluation and Equal Pay. I feel that it is important for staff and everyone involved to be as informed as possible, so here are the questions and answers received from the Council’s Director of Personnel today:

Question 1:
Is it true that appeals are taking place without Union representation, because Union officers are busy advising would-be appellants and do not have capacity to attend appeals that have been scheduled early in the process whilst still dealing with the preliminary stages of those for later on?

Answer 1:
In response to the further question concerning appeals, I met with the Branch Secretary and the Regional Officer from Unison this morning when we agreed the following with regard to the future conduct of appeals:

Unison will provide trained panel members so we can run 8 panels per day. During that first week Unison will “double up” and may sometimes provide two analysts to sit on the appeals panels, one will take part, the other will be an observer;
We will review the position when we meet on 23rd October.

Unison will provide the names of their analysts to Corporate HR; local stewards will be supported by regional officers to ensure that the 8 panel commitment can be maintained.

The co-ordination of appeals will be undertaken by Corporate HR working on the assumption that we will run 8 panels per day. Advance notice of the appellants details, paperwork, time and venue will be provided so that Unison have at least three working days and no more than seven working days notice to prepare for the hearings.

We agreed to review the process and progress of appeals in two weeks time (meeting with Unison on 23rd Oct)

For the remainder of this week we will cover appeals where TU analysts are available / have committed their time to participating in the appeal.

For information, some appeals have taken place this morning (supported by Unison) and others have taken place where the appellants requested that their appeal went ahead without a TU analyst.

Question 2:
How much money will it cost to extend full pay protection for employees of Bury MBC to the 2 years, 9 months level proposed by Bolton MBC

Answer 2:
If we were to offer full protection for 2 years, 9 months, the total cost to the Council would be £9.5m.

Please note we have sought permission to capitalise protection costs, however this option has been declined by the DCLG.

Question 3:
Please explain the different points-to-pay system which sees 430 points in Bury equate to £18,907 and 430 points in Bolton equate to £23,749

Answer 3:
The establishment of a pay to points system in each Authority is a matter for local determination that is influenced by local job market factors and affordability. All Local authorities must retain the nationally agreed pay spine (which Bury has done) but each Authority can determine the relationship between JE points and pay to suit its own local circumstances. For information please note that in the pay to points model developed by Blackburn with Darwen council, 430 points equates to a salary range of £17,800 - £20,100.

Question 4:
Please explain the low scoring for Revenues and Benefits staff in relation to the “Responsibility for Finance” section.

Answer 4:
Employees within Revenues and Benefits were awarded points within the levels 1-4 against this factor (there are six levels in total).

The factor measures the direct responsibility of the jobholder for financial resources, including cash, vouchers, cheques, debits and credits, invoices, budgets and income.

It takes into account the nature of the responsibility, eg. correctness and accuracy, safekeeping, confidentiality and security, deployment and degree of direct control etc.

This factor is hierarchical for jobs in finance and the guidance states that the levels awarded to jobs should reflect this. Consequently managerial roles within the R&B service were awarded Level 4 which is defined as:

The job involves high direct responsibility for financial resources. The work involves either:

(a) accounting for very large sums of money, in the form of cash, cheques, direct debits, invoices, or equivalent, where care, accuracy & security are important or:

(b) being accountable for large expenditures from an agreed budget or equivalent income. The responsibility may include contributing to the setting and monitoring of the relevant budget and ensuring effective spend of budgeted sums.

Other posts in the hierarchy were graded accordingly.

Question 5:
How many roles had their points cut during moderation, and what was the average number of points lost?

To be advised.

Question 6:
Can you confirm that, for all part time staff, gains and losses have been pro-rata’d as appropriate?

Answer 6:
Yes, part time equivalent figures have been used in the calculation

Question 7:
Has consideration been given to the “Stafford” model of dealing with this issue?

Answer7:
Contact has been made with Staffordshire to establish the facts. Staffordshire did not abandon Single Status. They are in the advanced stages of implementing the results from their Pay and Grading Review. In broad terms, some £85m has been pumped in to support the review’s outcome. This has, of course, significantly reduced the number of losers.

I continually receive questions from staff and residents on this, which I am relaying to the Leader for answers. These are the answers I received today, and I am hopeful that the outstanding question, and any others I receive, will be answered shortly.

Rick