Agenda and minutes

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or an Affected Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 20 March 2013 and 15 May 2013.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on the 20 March 2013 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Any other items which, pursuant to Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Chairman decides are urgent.

The Chief Officer: Human Resources brought to the Committee’s attention an urgent item relating to a proposed redundancy.  It was agreed that due to the content this would be dealt with as an exempt item.

The Committee is asked to note the minutes of the Local Joint Committee held on 4 June 2013.

The Committee noted the minutes of the Local Joint Committee held on 4 June 2013.  

It was noted that investigations would take place regarding a GMB substitute member being able to attend Local Joint Committee meetings.  

To consider the Council’s Annual Performance Report and updates regarding pensions discretions, early retirements and redundancies.

The Committee considered a report which outlined current policy on severance issues, showed the capital costs and savings on early retirements/redundancies and reported on ill health requirements. In line with established practice, the report summarised the Council’s performance during the last financial year 2012/13.

The Chief Officer: Human Resources reported that

• Pension Reform - the changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) would take effect from 1 April 2014.
• Auto enrolment – new legislation came into effect from 1 October 2012 stating that all eligible workers should be auto-enrolled into a qualifying pension.  Employees could choose to opt out after being auto-enrolled however no one had opted out of the scheme to date.

It was also reported that there were new discretions available to the Council regarding pension regulations.  Currently requests for flexible retirement at no cost to the Council were brought to the Employment Committee for approval.  It was recommended that in future only requests which have an associated capitalised cost be brought to the Committee for approval.  Officers would deal with requests which carry no cost but would report these back to the Committee.

Also requests for ill health retirement under Regulation 30A would be considered on a case by case basis with any which carry a cost to be brought to the Employment Committee.  Officer would deal with cases that do not carry a cost and report these back to the Committee.

The following responses were made to members’ queries:

• All employees even those aged 60 or over would be auto-enrolled into the pension scheme.  However they were able to opt out if required.
• Under the Flexible Retirement regulations, provided they qualified through age and service, an employee would be able to work less hours and receive all or part of their pension. 
• A breakdown of any decisions made by officers would be brought to future meetings.
• The Outturn figures for 2012-13 regarding ill health retirements would be checked and the correct information would be forwarded to Members.

It was RESOLVED that;

1          Requests for flexible retirement with an associated capitalised cost be considered by the Committee on a case by case basis .

2          Requests for flexible retirement which carry no cost to the Council be dealt with by Officers and reported back to the Committee.

3          Requests for payments under Regulation 30A be examined on a case by case basis; any which carry a cost to the Council be brought to the Committee for a decision and any which do not be dealt with by officers and reported back to the Committee.

4          The Committee examine issues in relation to Regulation 30 on a case by case basis, but resolve not to waive the actuarial reduction.

The purpose of the report is to give an update on the progress of the National Pay negotiations.

The Chief Officer: Human Resources informed the Committee of the latest progress of the National Pay Negotiations.

In response to the 2 options rejected by the trade unions the National Employers made a final offer to the unions:

• 1% on all pay points with effect from 1 April 2013.
• The deletion of pay point 4 with effect from 1 October 2013.

The Trade Union side would consider the Employer’s pay offer and are now balloting their memberships to gauge support for the officer.  A resolution to the issue was expected in late June.

The Committee noted the report.

To consider the following motion:

That pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of the following item which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of that Act:

(1)        Information relating to any individual   (Item 9).

RESOLVED that pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting from the consideration of the following item which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of the Act:

(1) Information relating to any individual (items 11 & 12).

A report to seek approval to the redundancy of the post-holder identified in the exempt Annex to the report.

The Committee considered a report regarding a proposed redundancy of a Care co-ordinator post.

It was RESOLVED that the post-holder identified in the exempt Appendix A to the report, be made redundant with effect from 31 July 2013 in accordance with the terms set out in the exempt appendix.

The Committee considered a report regarding a proposed redundancy in the Accounts Payable team.

It was RESOLVED that the post-holder identified in the exempt Appendix A to the report, be made redundant with effect from 31 July 2013 in accordance with the terms set out in the exempt appendix.

9 October 2013.

9 October 2013.