To consider the report.

The Head of HR, Corporate Projects and IT introduced the report regarding the Council’s Gender Pay Gap.

Members were informed that the Council was required to publish by 30 March annually a number of gender pay gap indicators reflecting a snapshot of employees in post on 31 March the previous year. The report contained the data for 31 March 2019 to be published by 30 March 2020.

Table 2 of the report compared the Council’s 2019 gender pay gap with national figures for all employees and those in the public sector for 2018.  The Council’s gap remained significantly below the 2018 national figures with a 5% mean gap and 2.6% median gap.

Table 3 compared the Council with the other Berkshire councils for 2018 as the 2019 data was not yet available.  Page 15 also showed performance payments by gender pay gap.  A larger percentage of payments were made to men during 2018/19, which was down to the Royal Wedding preparations where a larger proportion of males undertook additional work. 

Appendix D showed pay profiles within pay grades.  The figures showed that for eight out of 13 grades, women were paid slightly more than men. For grades 10 and above, although men are mostly paid slightly more than women, analysis of the gender profile identified that women had fewer years’ service with the Council and less continuous Local Government service.

The Council were trying to encourage more women to take up managerial roles by having flexible working, introducing paid leave for foster careers and a middle management forum.

Cllr Del Campo asked why there were more men who worked on the Royal Wedding, why some of the payments were large and if there had been any complaints about gender bias. In response the Panel were informed that there had been more men working on the Royal Wedding due to the roles required, such as parking, parks and highway officers, being mainly male.  The level of reward were set to no more than 1k and came from existing service budgets and that there had been no complaints about gender bias.  The panel were also informed that a new unconscious bias e-learning training launched for all managers to undertake.

Cllr Del Campo also asked for clarification regarding those on part time roles and was informed that the pay was based on the role and not the hours worked, however pat time roles tended to be on the lower grades and part time workers were less likely to move into management positions although this is something the council are trying to actively promote. 

Cllr Jones asked how many employees were covered by the results and why at grades 10/11 there were more women employed but they were on lower pay was this historical. The Panel  were informed that it was about 600 centrally employed staff.  The reason for some men at grades 10/11 being on higher pay was they tended to have longer continues service and yes this related to historical grading where the longer you were in service the higher up the ladder you would be.  RBWM also had larger career grading that resulted to those in service longer being on higher pay.

Cllr Werner asked what organisations had to report data and if this could be a requirement in any tendered contracts.  The Panel were informed that an employer with over 250 employees had to provide data and that any employees Tuped would remain on the same terms and conditions.

Cllr Jones asked if AFC and Optalis provided data and was informed that this could be requested at Ownership and Management Board meetings.

Resolved unanimously: that Employment and Member Standards Panel notes the report and:

i)       Approves the updated commentary about the Council’s gender pay gap for publication on the Council’s website and the Gov.uk website.

ii)      Approves the continuing actions identified in the commentary.