Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED: to appoint Councillor Holdich as Chairman to the Committee for this meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillors Cereste, Fitzgerald, Lamb and Sandford.

Councillor Holdich declared a personal interest in Agenda Item 6. City College Peterborough – Proposal to Vary Terms and Conditions of Permanent Tutors and Assessors, on the basis that he is Chairman of City College.

Councillor Seaton declared a personal interest in Agenda Item 5. Local Government Pensions Scheme – Discretionary Policy, on the basis that he is a member of the Cambridgeshire Pensions Fund Committee.  Councillor Seaton had also made a ‘standing declaration’ at a previous meeting on the basis that he is a member of the UNITE union.

The minutes of the meeting held on 23 June 2010 were approved as a true and accurate record.

The Committee received a report from the Acting Head of Human Resources which was submitted to the Committee following a referral from the Corporate Management Team, and Joint Consultative Forum on 5August 2010.

The report sought agreement from the Committee to the Local Government Pension Scheme Discretionary Policy (Part A (previous regulations) & Part B) as attached at Appendix One to the report.

In presenting the report, the Acting Head of Human Resources explained that the report now presented three additional statutory discretionary items which applied to employees that had left the Council or were deferred pensioners.  These items had a minor impact for current employees.

Part B of Appendix One outlined a further seven discretions that were not compulsory to include in the Policy Statement but were recommended to be included.  The last of these discretions was the most significant, which was to ensure that the correct rate of contribution was collected for each employee as their pay changed.  Reassessment of contributions would now take place at any time during the year when an employee was promoted, demoted, on an incremental pay award, the commencement or cessation of acting up, the commencement or cessation of a contractual allowance, and pay awards as and when they occurred.

During consideration, the following points were noted:

• Human Resources had been working closely with Payroll in relation to the implementation of the policy.  Payroll were confident that they could monitor changes closely.

• A list of pensionable pay elements had been devised that confirmed which elements of pay were pensionable and included in the calculation of the tier and which were not.  This was to clarify the position going forward.  Despite no formal list having previously been published the actual pension contributions collected was by and large correct.    At times it had been difficult to define what was and was not a contractual payment, however processes were being strengthened going forward.  Items included in the list of pensionable items were based on national guidelines from HMRC.

• Guidance Notes on Membership on the LGPS, which were not part of the LGPS discretionary policy, sought to clarify which employees may join the scheme.  Special mention was made for the Coroner and registration staff, as they are defined separately in legislation.

• Fixed term employees who initially had a contract of less than three months which was extended to more than three months were entitled to membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme, in accordance with the rules of the scheme.

• Queries were raised on the benefit of adjusting employee contributions when an employee was acting at a higher grade for a short period, however it was noted that periods of ‘acting up’ tended to be longer term and in these cases it was appropriate to increase the contribution.  This would ensure that the employee would receive benefit from the scheme at the higher rate, which was considered appropriate.

• Queries were rais  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Committee received a report from the Principal of City College which was submitted to the Committee by the Management Team of City College on the recommendation of the Job Evaluation Team and the Association of Colleges in the Eastern Region (“ACER”).

The report sought agreement from the Committee to enable (as part of a staged process) the alignment of the terms and conditions of permanent and sessional tutors and assessors employed at City College, Peterborough.

The Vice Principal of City College briefly explained that recent job evaluation of tutors and assessors revealed that there were two different remuneration types for staff undertaking the same work.  There had been a review of salaries across the sector, consultation with permanent staff and the unions, both of whom supported the proposal.

The changes would be of benefit to employees as they recognised and rewarded qualifications and provided staff with a career structure, which also sought to increase the skills of the workforce.  These changes had been on the table for some time, and had been reviewed by the legal team in detail.

The cost to City College would be minimal, and there would be no financial implications for the Council as the College was self financing.

During consideration, the following points were noted:

• The staff qualifications focussed on the learning experience of students and included assessment in the classroom.  There was a heavy focus on quality and performance of staff.

• Ofsted had issued a deadline by which all staff must be trained, dependent on who and what they were teaching.  Ofsted would also undertake classroom observations of staff.

• The changes provided parity in remuneration and career progression to staff which was very positive.

• Staff would still receive an annual increase within pay scales, however more often than not, staff would move from one career grade to another as they gained qualifications before they received an annual increase.  Staff who did not gain any further qualifications, would receive an annual increase until they reached the top of the pay scale.

• The changes would first be rolled out to permanent staff, with sessional staff to follow, to bring everyone under the same payscale and structure.  Sessional staff were to follow as the logistics of accessing these staff was quite complex, and it was felt that it was important not to hold up the process and proceed on this basis.

• The implementation would see arrears back to 1April 2009.  Some arrears and pay protection had been factored into the report.

RESOLVED:

That the proposed changes to the terms and conditions of permanent tutors and assessors employed at Peterborough College, are approved.

Business was concluded at 3.35pm.