To receive any apologies for absence

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Dr L Evans.

To receive any declarations of interest

None received.

To consider the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 13 February 2018.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 13 February 2018 be approved.

To consider the above report

Members considered an updated report covering the council’s gender pay gap information based on the council’s workforce as at 1 April 2017. This date took into account the changes to the size and shape of the council as a result of transfers of employees to partnership companies. Members noted the comparative figure in tables 1-4 of the report and the commentary provided in paragraph 2.8. The report to the previous Panel had included data in relation to 22 other councils that had already published data. It was noted that many were non-unitary with less than 500 employees. At the last meeting, Members had requested further investigation of those councils with a better performance than the Royal Borough.

Councillor Hilton commented that it was not necessarily a bad thing that people moved up the scale within the borough and then left as they would speak well of the council and the development support provided. The Managing Director commented that the council had experienced this issue; one of the reasons for the partnerships with Optalis and AfC was to provide staff with more opportunities. It would be important that when the data was published it also included the commentary and the main action points planned to address any issues. Members requested that a simple definition of mean and median be included.

Councillor Bicknell commented that the council should focus on having the best person to do the job, whether they were male or female. He asked what success would look like in terms of the gender pay gap. The Head of HR confirmed that the borough’s figures were better than the ‘national all employees’ and the ‘public sector all employees’ comparator figures, however a number of actions had been identified to close the gap further. The figures would likely vary year on year as the workforce changed but a dramatic shift was not expected. Councillor Brimacombe commented that given the nature of public sector demographics, it would be important not to make the target unachievable.

The Head of HR explained that the numbers of authorities that had published figures was still quite low as this was the first year reporting had been required. All authorities were required to publish by 31 March 2018. Members therefore requested a follow-up paper at the next meeting to provide a wider comparison,

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Employment Panelnotes the report and:

i)     Approves the Gender Pay Gap action plan amendment ‘ Women and particularly those working part time, will be encouraged to participate in the council’s 2018/19 management development programme’

To consider passing the following resolution:-

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on items 6-9 on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act"

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on items 6-9 on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act

To consider the Part II minutes of the meeting held on 13 February 2018

To consider the above report

To consider the above report

To consider the above report