Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Rooms 2 and 3, Trafford Town Hall, Talbot Road, Stretford, M32 0YT

Contact: Alexander Murray  Democratic and Scrutiny Officer

Items
No. Item

1.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 118 KB

To receive and, if so determined, to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 16 January, 2017.

Minutes:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 16 January 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

 

2.

TRAFFORD COUNCIL'S PAY POLICY STATEMENT FOR 2017/18 pdf icon PDF 141 KB

To receive a report of the Acting Director of Human Resources.

Minutes:

The Interim Director of HR presented the report to the Committee. The Committee’s attention was drawn to the 0.5% pension increase, changes to payments of termination and the gender pay gap. Committee members were very interested in the work on the gender pay gap within the council. The Interim Director of HR informed the Committee that HR would be looking at the gender pay gap in 2017/18 and they requested that the work come to them once completed. The Committee noted and approved the pay policy statement 2017/18 with no amendments to be made.

 

RESOLVED:

1)    That the pay policy statement be noted and approved by the Committee.

2)    That the work conducted by HR on the gender pay gap is to come to the Committee once completed.

 

 

3.

AGENCY SPEND FOR Q.3 (1 OCTOBER - 31 DECEMBER 2016) pdf icon PDF 164 KB

To receive a report of the Acting Director of Human Resources.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Interim Director of HR presented the report on Agency spend to the Committee. The report showed that overall agency spend was down by £21k in Q3 compared with Q2. There had been increases of £7k from work with GMP, which would mostly be re-charged, and a slight increase within the Children, Families and Wellbeing (CFW) directorate. The benchmarking exercise that had been conducted comparing the 9 Greater Manchester (GM) authorities, not including Manchester City Council, showed that Trafford had the 6th highest spend across GM. A member of the Committee enquired as to why all of the assignments within Appendix 2 of the report ended on the same date? The interim Director of HR explained that was the date the contract with Hays ended and the new contract with Reed commenced.

 

The Committee discussed the continued high agency spend within CFW. The Interim Director of HR stated that the proposed changes to IR 35 Legislation may reduce the advantages of being an agency worker compared to a member of Council staff. It was hoped the change would make working directly for the Council more attractive to workers and help reduce staffing shortages and the Council’s need for agency staff. 

 

REOLVED:

1)    That the report be noted by the Committee.

4.

QUARTERLY REPORT ON EXEMPTIONS TO THE SICKNESS POLICY

To receive a verbal report of the Acting Director of Human Resources.

Minutes:

The interim Director of HR informed the Committee that there had been no new exemptions to the sickness policy.

 

RESOLVED:

1)    That the update be noted by the Committee.

5.

UPDATE ON THE MANDATORY LEAVE POSITION

To receive a verbal report of the Acting Director of Human Resources.

Minutes:

The Interim Director of HR updated the Committee on the position of the mandatory leave policy. As of the meeting 91% of staff members had signed up to the new terms of employment with 108 still to comply. The Interim Director of HR stated that if the remaining 108 did not sign up by the deadline the Council would look to terminate and reemploy those staff. The Chairman of the Committee noted that the process had followed the same pattern as the previous review of the policy.

 

RESOLVED:

1)    That the update be noted by the Committee.