Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/DisclosuresofInterests

In accordance with the provisions of the Code of conduct adopted by the City and County of Swansea, no interests were declared.

To approve & sign the Minutes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 13 January 2016 be agreed as a correct record.

Councillor J P Curtice attended the Cabinet Advisory Committee and provided a verbal update on her work as the Councillor Champion for Older People.

She detailed the events she had attended as Councillor Champion and highlighted the issues she was encountering in the role, many relating to safeguarding.  She added that she had been in contact with the Older Peoples Commissioner and the Older Peoples Champion for Wales. 

The Committee asked the Councillor Champion a number of questions regarding her role and the many issues encountered by older people.

The Chair thanked the Councillor Champion for providing her report.

The Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development and Organisational Development Project Officer provided a briefing note regarding the proposed gender pay gap project.

It was outlined that the Welsh Specific Equality Regulations 2011, the so-called ‘Equal Pay Duty’ required the Council to address not only disparities of pay but also to address the structural labour market factors that can cause gender pay gaps.

With this in mind, the Head of HR&OD invited Dr Alison Parken of Cardiff University, the leading research specialist in this area, to meet with the Chair and HROD Officers about the research she has undertaken with 3    public sector organisations in Wales, including a Local Authority in South East

Wales. A copy of the presentation provided by Dr Parker was provided at Appendix 1.

The research had highlighted a number of issues, particularly the way that the public sector structures jobs and contractual working hours which may be contributing to a gender pay gap that could contravene the Equal Pay Duty. 

For example, in the Council studied, an analysis of grades 1-3 (lowest paid posts) indicated that women held part time posts while their male counterparts held full time posts, suggesting an inequality in opportunities for career progression.  This was due to the traditional notion of ‘women’s work’ being part-time, as it was assumed that women prefer this type of work.  The research found that this was not the case, as many women undertaking part-time work had more than one part-time post in order to build their earnings.

More importantly, however, the evidence showed that permanent full-time posts were predominantly held by male employees, but the majority of local authority staff were female.  This indicated that the way Councils structure posts and offer contracted work could be contributing to a potential gender pay gap because of the way work is being structured within the Council.

The Committee asked a number of questions of the Officers, who responded accordingly.  Discussions centred around the following: -

·         Undertaking a project to understand our current Gender Pay situation, not only to comply with the Equal Pay Duty regulations, but to assist us with moving forward to ensuring that the Council becomes an organisation that addressed the any potential gender inequalities within the workforce;

·         Working arrangements within the Council such as flexi-time, flexible working, maternity leave, ‘keeping in touch’ and term-time working and examples provided from other local authorities whereby jobs were brought together in order to create full-time posts;

·         Utilising the WAVE Project toolkit;

·         Unconscious bias training and the packages available;

·         Mandatory training provided by other large organisations locally.

RESOLVED that: -

1)    The contents of the report be noted;

2)    A report be provided at the next scheduled meeting giving a snapshot of one directorate in order for the Committee to discuss the issue further.

The Chair presented an update Work Programme 2015-2016.

The Committee discussed the topic of Agency Workers and requested the Chair clarify with the Cabinet Member if he wished the investigations to proceed and not wait until the end of the Commissioning Review into Waste Management.

The Democratic Services Officer confirmed the details of the site visit to Helping Hands on 23 March 2016.

RESOLVED that: -

1)    The contents of the report be noted;

2)    A further report on the Proposed Gender Gap Project be added to the workplan;

3)    The Chair clarifies with the Cabinet Member his requirements in relation to Agency Workers;

4)    A site visit to Helping Hands at Ty Blodau, Singleton Park takes place at 1.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 23^rd March 2016.