Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/DisclosuresofInterests

In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City and County of Swansea, the following interests were declared: -

Councillor J E Burtonshaw – Minute No.’s 41 and 42 – My sister’s daughter-in-law and granddaughter work as Classroom Assistants in Bishop Gore School – personal.

Councillor J A Hale - Minute No. 41 – My wife works for the City & County of Swansea, Catering Service – personal.

NOTED that Councillor J A Hale had received dispensation from the Standards Committee to stay and speak on any item relating to general staff employment.

Councillor M Thomas - Minute No. 41 – My wife works for the Authority.  I have dispensation from the Standards Committee.

NOTED that Councillor M Thomas had received dispensation from the Standards Committee in respect of his wife.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 9 March 2016 be agreed as a correct record, subject to Councillor J E Burtonshaw being added to the list of apologies.

Steve Rees/Linda Phillips

The Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development and the Organisational Development Project Officer provided the Gender Pay Gap Project – Sample Data Report.  The report provided an upate to the discussion that took place at the previous meeting where it was agreed that the Human Resources and Organisational Development Service would prepare a sample of the gender pay gap analysis for the Council workforce.

It was added 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.  A general overview of the data analysis of the HR specialist using Cardiff University’s Gender Pay Toolkit provided by Dr Parken and an initial review of some of our data kindly undertaken by Dr Parken herself, with some recommendations for further work was provided.

Appendix 1 outlined a very brief and high level analysis of the non-schools workforce by gender and grade undertaken by the Council’s HR specialist using Dr Parken’s toolkit.  There were indications that the Authority had some areas of potential concern, specifically the number of women in temporary posts and the number of part time women in lower grades.  The analysis provided by Dr Parken at Appendix 2 confirmed this.  This may be due to the way the Authority structured jobs to assist all employees by offering the flexibility of part time work. However, the proportion of part time posts diminished travelling upwards in the pay structure.  The data snapshot indicated that the Council does not necessarily have a gender biased pay gap based on hourly rate, but there were indications that there may be a pay gap in the wider workforce across the full grade spectrum.  Further analysis was needed to be sure that this was not the case.

The Committee asked a number of questions, which were responded to by the Officers.  Discussions centred around the following: -

·         Numbers of workers on fixed / casual contracts;

·         WAVE employment and pay data analysis provided by Dr A Parken;

·         Men holding a disproportionate number of full time posts compared to women, who tended to have lower graded jobs;

·         Whether women prefered to work in part-time posts;

·         Lack of women in higher graded jobs;

·         Unusual gender balance of jobs within the Authority;

·         Impact of job evaluation and the appeals process;

RESOLVED that: -

1)    The Chair recommends to the Cabinet Member that the Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development service undertakes a full analysis of the workforce Gender/Pay data and that recommendations for action put forward by Dr Parken be implemented;

2)    A report be provided to the Committee in due course.

The letter from Welsh Government Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty regarding Tackling Gender Pay Inequality in Wales, was provided for information.

David Picken

The Divisional Trading Standards Officer provided an update regarding Smoke Free Spaces.  He outlined the responsible attitude that the Authority had taken with regards to smoking and the activities that had been introduced in order to help people stop smoking.  It was added that this was a high profile activity which had been well received by the public.

He highlighted the actions taken against people smoking in work who had been prosecuted while driving and the actions taken by the Authority against counterfeit cigarettes. 

The programme of activities undertaken by the Authority included schools, play areas, city centre development and having a smoke free beach at Caswell.  He explained that the smoke free beach was a pilot scheme which would be launched on 27 April 2016.  It was added that even though the Authority could not police smoking at Caswell, it was hoped that people would set a good example and co-operate with the scheme.

The Committee asked questions regarding the update, particularly in relation to the pilot scheme at Caswell, smoking outside play areas / at bus stops / outside school gates, cigarette littering in the City Centre, updating current signage and getting the message through to the younger generations.

RESOLVED that: -

1)    The Committee be invited to the launch of the Smoke Free Beach Pilot on 27 April 2016;

2)    The Council Smoking Policy be circulated to the Committee.

The Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development presented a briefing note regarding Agency Workers in order to provide the Committee an update in respect of the use of Agency Workers within the Authority and to investigate the merits of developing an ‘in house’ agency service.

The Authority currently has 228 Agency Workers being used in various Departments.  The figures providing the numbers of Agency Workers working for the Authority at the end of February 2016 were provided at Appendix A.  It was added that the two main employment agency contractors were RSD and Select.    The Council Agency Workers Policy was adopted on 1 April 2014.

The majority of Agency Workers were used in the Waste Management Service area, i.e. 152.  However, it was noted that not all these worked on a full time basis; some were used infrequently and some of these were long standing Agency Workers.  Approximately 20 had been employed on a permanent basis since 2015.  The Waste Management Commissioning Review would be looking at the remainder of these Agency Workers.

Since October 2011, Agency Workers had been entitled to equal treatment

on basic working and employment conditions as if they had been recruited directly by the Council, once they had been in the same job for 12 calendar weeks.  ‘Equal treatment’ means Agency Workers are entitled to:

·                Access to the same basic pay based on the annual salary the Agency Worker would get if recruited directly by us.  The pay will include holiday pay, overtime allowances and bonus payments (whilst the Council still pays them). Pay does not include occupational sick pay, but they are entitled to statutory sick pay;

·                Access to the same holiday entitlement, working time, overtime, breaks and rest periods as permanent workers;

·                Equal access to collective facilities – this is a day 1 entitlement;

·                Access to information about internal vacancies to give them the same opportunity as other workers to find permanent employment– this is a day 1 entitlement;

·             Equal access to on-site facilities such as canteen facilities    and transport services– this is a day 1 entitlement.

In addition to Agency Workers, Social Services have their own Team of workers, the RST Team which includes 72 staff employed on a casual basis by the Authority.  The staff do progress through the grades and external agency staff should only be employed in an emergency.

Discussions centred around the following: -

·         Researching other authorities to see their practices;

·         Impact of the Commissioning Review of Waste Management upon Agency Worker numbers;

·         Comparing the cost of employing agency workers and Council staff;

·         Employment of agency workers in Education, i.e. teaching staff;

·         Comparing Council policy against practice.

RESOLVED that: -

1)    The Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development investigates what models currently exist in other Councils that we could learn from;

2)    A further report be made following the completion of the Commissioning Review of Waste Management.

The Chair presented and updated Work Plan 2015/16.

The Committee highlighted areas for possible discussion during the next Municipal Year.

RESOLVED that: -

1)    The contents of the report be noted;

2)    Feedback from the Site Visit to Helping Hands at Singleton Park be discussed the next scheduled meeting;

3)    The Cabinet Member for Transformation and Performance be invited to attend the first meeting of the next Municipal Year in order to discuss the Work Plan 2016/17.