Pay Policy Statement

This document sets out the Council’s Pay Policy in relation to the remuneration of its employees in accordance with Section 38 of the Localism Act 2011. The Policy is subject to annual review and must be approved by the Council for each financial year. The Policy will be published on the Council’s website as soon as reasonably practicable after approval or amendment.

The key principles of the Council’s pay policy are set out below and are effective from 1 April 2024.

• The general principles that underpin the Council’s approach to its pay policy.
• Definitions of the ‘lowest paid employees’ and ‘chief officers’ for the purposes of pay comparison.
• The relationship between the remuneration of chief officers, average pay, and the remuneration of the lowest paid employees.

The arrangements set out within this document do not extend to those employees who are employed within schools.

This pay policy provides a basis on which the Council can compete in labour markets at all levels and for all roles, enabling the Council to attract, retain, and fairly reward people with the knowledge, experience, skills and attributes that are essential to the effective delivery of services to residents, businesses, and other stakeholders in South Tyneside.

The Council is mindful of its obligations as an equal opportunities employer, and wants to ensure that people are treated fairly and with respect in all its activities and processes. The Council aims to be an organisation that recruits and retains a diverse and skilled workforce from the local community and beyond, and its approach to the pay and conditions of its workforce is intended to support this objective.

In supporting the aim of ensuring equality and transparency in its pay practices, the Council recognises the role of trade unions and employee representatives in consultation and negotiation within a process of free collective bargaining.

The Council’s main (NJC) pay and grading structure has been developed by creating grades around the national ‘spinal column’ of salary points. The salaries attributable to posts are determined via a job evaluation. Employees are remunerated according to the evaluated score of the post they hold and by reference to the salary scale existing at any given time. Some posts may include an entitlement to incremental progression (such as Career Grades) however, incremental progression is generally not used within the Council and the vast majority of employees are on a single spot salary.

New appointments are subject to the Council’s Recruitment and Selection Policy and will generally be made at the third spinal column point of all pay bands unless there are special circumstances and payment at a higher level can be objectively justified. Agreement must be given by the appropriate Director, and the Head of People and Organisational Change in consultation with the Director of Business and Resources.

In the event of any employee securing a higher-graded post via internal promotion/recruitment and there being an overlap of spinal column points between their current post and bottom point of the newly secured position, then the Council will generally pay salary on the third spinal column point.

Where an employee is redeployed because of redundancy or ill health, they will generally be appointed to the third spinal column point within the new band.

There may from time to time be situations where employees are transferred into the Council from other organisations which have different pay and conditions. The employees’ terms and conditions on transfer may be subject to protection under TUPE or TUPE-like arrangements, and as such may be outside the Council’s main pay structure until such time as it is possible for them to be integrated.

The Council introduced ‘single status arrangements’ in 2010. The lowest paid employees within the authority are appointed to posts which have been evaluated using an agreed job evaluation scheme and are remunerated accordingly.

Lowest paid employees’ is defined as those who are employed in jobs which are paid on Band 3, spinal column point 4. It excludes apprentices as these attributable salaries depend on age and are those set out within the National Minimum Wage legislation. Given the specific nature of these appointments, it is felt inappropriate to include apprentices within the definition of lowest paid employees for the purposes of this policy statement.

Spinal column point 4, at £12.64 per hour, is £1.20 per hour more than the National Living Wage, effective from April 2024 and £0.04 per hour more than the UK Accredited Living Wage (outside London), effective from October 2024.

• Annual salary at spinal column point 4, is currently £24,404 p.a. from 1 April 2024.
• The mode (i.e. most frequently used) salary for all employees falls across both our Band 3 and Band 4 of the pay scale. This is at point 4 which is £24,404.
• The median salary, for all employees excluding overtime and any other additional payments, is £27,711.

‘Chief Officer’ is defined in the Localism Act 2011 as Head of Paid Service designated under section 4(1) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989; Monitoring Officer designated under section 5(1) of that Act; any statutory chief officer mentioned in section 2(6) of that Act; any non-statutory chief officer mentioned in section 2(7) of that Act; any deputy chief officer mentioned in section 2(8) of that Act.

Under the above provisions, ‘statutory chief officer’ includes:

• the person having responsibility, for all statutory purposes (inc. section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972), for the administration of the authority’s financial affairs;
• the Director of Children’s Services appointed under section 18 of the Children Act 2004;
• the Director of Adult Social Services appointed under section 6(A1) of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 (as amended by the Children Act 2004); and
• the Director of Public Health appointed under section 73A(1) of the National Health Service Act 2006.

‘non-statutory chief officer’ includes:

• a person for whom the head of the authority’s paid service is directly responsible;
• a person who in relation to most of their duties is required to report direct or is directly accountable to the head of paid service and any person who similarly is required to report direct or is directly accountable to the authority or its committees.

Chief Officer posts and the attributable salaries are as follows:

All of the above payments are subject to satisfactory performance as determined by the Council’s Head of Paid Service.

Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) terms and conditions are incorporated into all Chief Officers’ contracts of employment.

The salaries attributable to Chief Officer posts are based on:

• clear salary differentials which reflect the level of responsibility attached to any particular role; and
• rates which are reasonably sufficient to recruit and retain senior officers taking into account market conditions.

Increases in pay for Chief Officers will occur only as a result of:

• pay awards agreed by way of national/local collective pay bargaining arrangements; or
• significant changes to a Chief Officer’s role which result in a higher salary being appropriate,
• recruitment and/or retention payments which, in all the given circumstances at the relevant time, are deemed necessary in the best interests of the Council and which are determined under a relevant policy relating to such payments. Such payments are kept under regular review.

It is expected that senior officers will perform to the highest level and performance related pay does not, therefore, form part of current remuneration arrangements. This position will be reviewed if legislation and/or guidance relating to senior posts are changed.

The ‘pay multiple’ for the Council is determined by comparing the hourly pay for the highest paid employee against that of the median hourly pay for the organisation as a whole.

The Council’s current pay multiple is 6.53.

Fees for election and referenda duties undertaken by Chief Officers are not included in their salaries. Election fees are payable only for national elections and referenda and vary on each occasion. For Parliamentary, Police and Crime Commissioner and national referenda, payments are set by central government.

Chief Officers who cease to hold office or be employed by the Council will receive payments calculated using the same principles as any other employee, based on entitlement within their contract of employment, their general terms and conditions, and existing policies.

In the case of termination of employment by way of early retirement, redundancy (voluntary or otherwise) or on the grounds of efficiency of the service, the Council’s Early Retirement and Redundancy Policy sets out provisions which apply to all employees regardless of their level of seniority.

The Council’s Pension Scheme Policy document sets out the relevant provisions in relation to awarding additional pension entitlement.

A report detailing the Council’s Gender Pay Gap figures, for the position as at 31^st March 2023, is published on the Council’s website (Gender Pay Gap Report - March 2023 - South Tyneside Council, this includes the Council’s long term plans for improving the pay gap.

Information will be published on the Council’s website in line with The Local Authorities (Data Transparency) Code 2015.