HARMONISATION / JOB EVALUATION

From today members should receive a ballot paper and information regarding proposals relating to job evaluation and harmonisation of conditions.  The ballot paper should be returned, in the stamped addressed envelope provided, to our regional office in Manchester by not later than Noon on Friday, 13 June 2008.  Please read all the information and use your vote so that the outcome of the ballot is truly representative.  The Authority will also be sending out an information booklet which will list jobs and grades.  A copy of the information you should receive with your ballot paper is below:

WIRRAL UNISON

HARMONISATION AND JOB EVALUATION –UNISON BALLOT

Introduction

As you will be aware UNISON has been in discussion with the Council regarding proposals for changes to pay, grading and conditions, the details of which are contained in this document.

It is important that members understand that this ballot is on the proposal for a new scheme, and not on whether an individual feels their own Job Evaluation outcome is fair.  The Council will provide each employee with their Job Evaluation outcome, including the Job Evaluation score and factor levels, how those levels were determined, where jobs will be assimilated into the new pay scheme, and how individuals can appeal against their Job Evaluation score.  UNISON will support members in the appeals process.

To coincide with this ballot, the Council will provide all employees with a copy of the proposal and supporting, explanatory documents.  Members should read all the information carefully and direct any enquiries about the proposals to the Council in the first instance.

While there are benefits and achievements in closing the pay gap and improvements to terms and conditions UNISON can’t recommend acceptance of the package because of the unknown outcomes of the phased implementation proposal.

Please ensure that you take time to read all the information available and please use your vote so that the outcome of the ballot is truly representative.
HARMONISATION

What is harmonisation? 

The Council’s workforce is currently made up of 36% manual workers and 64% APTC staff (officers), who work along-side each other but whose pay and working arrangements differ greatly.  The aim of harmonisation is to standardise and simplify the pay and working arrangements for all of the Council’s employees.

Working Week
 
Currently former manual workers work a 37 hour week and former officers' work a 35 hour week.  The proposals are that:

• All existing employees currently working a 37 hour week would move to a 36 hour week on 1 July 2008.
• All existing employees currently working a 35 hour week would remain on those hours.

• All new appointments to the Council made on or after 1 July 2008 would be made on the basis of a 36 hour week.
• All existing employees who are promoted or re-graded to a higher grade would work a 36 hour week from the date their promotion or re-grading took effect.

• On 1 July 2009 a review, by the Council and UNISON, to look at the affordability of harmonising all employees to work a 35 hour week would take place.  If agreement could not be reached on this, all employees would move to a 36 hour week on 1 July 2009.

By reducing the working week from 37 hours to 36 hours 43% of employees would be affected.  Of these 22.5% would work an hour less each week whilst receiving the same pay.  77.5% would receive an increase in pay due to the contract hours of part time employees currently based on a 37 hour week remaining unchanged whilst the hourly rate would increase by 2.7%.

Annual Leave / Holidays

Currently former manual workers are entitled to 20 days leave rising to 25 days leave after 5 years service.  Whilst former officers are entitled to 20 days leave rising to 25 days leave after 5 years service and rising to 28 days leave after 10 years service.  The proposals are that annual leave entitlements would be harmonised for all employees as follows:

• Up to 5 years local government service = 27 days

• After 5 years local government service = 32 days

• Public holidays = 8 days

(i.e. New Years Day; Good Friday; Easter Monday; May Day Holiday; Spring Bank Holiday; Late Summer Bank Holiday; Christmas Day; and Boxing Day)

• The existing 2 extra statutory holidays would become normal working days as these would be absorbed as part of the 27 or 32 days leave entitlement.

• Entitlement would be pro-rata for part-time employees.

Working Arrangements and Premium Payments

The current arrangements for payments relating to basic hours, additional hours, overtime, evening or weekend work are complex and differ greatly for both former manual workers and officers.  The proposals are intended to simplify the current arrangements to ensure that all employees receive payments on an equal, transparent and easy to understand basis.  Those employees on flexible working schemes including TOIL, should use these schemes before resorting to any of the payments.  The proposals for those on scp4 – 34 are shown in the following table:

* This rate would apply to any basic and additional hours worked up to the equivalent of full time hours.

** This rate would apply to all hours worked Monday to Friday but only when the weekly full time hours have been worked.
For employees above scp34 discretion to pay allowances or to apply an inclusive rate of pay to take all the features of the job into account would remain, as would payments for planned additional hours working.

Other Allowances

First Aid Allowance, currently paid to former manual workers at 5pence per hour and to former officers at £105 per year, would be changed to £105 per year for all appropriately qualified employees.

Call-out payments would be paid for a minimum of 2 hours at the appropriate enhancement rate set out in the above table.

 Flexible Pay / Benefits

Employees could choose to swap pay for a range of specified benefits which could include additional annual leave, sabbatical leave, vouchers (child care) etc, subject to compliance with statutory requirements e.g. the Working Time Directive, and the needs of the particular service.

Work Life Balance

Each service area may be required to carry out a work-life balance review so that flexible working could be considered, including home, remote working, annualised hours or compressed hours and would be based upon the needs of the individual and the service.

Monthly Pay

Currently there are 62% of employees paid on the 18th of each month.  The proposal would be to move the remaining 38% of weekly paid employees to the same monthly pay date with effect from 1 July 2008.  Transitional arrangements would be put in place to minimise the amount of time between the final weekly pay date of 26 June 2008 and the first monthly pay date of 18 July 2008.
JOB EVALUATION

What is Job Evaluation?

Job Evaluation is a systematic process to establish the relative value of a job by objectively measuring the different elements or parts of the job.  It assesses each element of the job and provides a score.  It is not a study of the job holder or a review of the way a job is done. 

The starting point for any new pay and grading system is to use a Job Evaluation process that can fairly and accurately determine the rank order of jobs across the Council.  The Job Evaluation scheme we used to do this has 13 factors: (i) Knowledge, (ii) Mental Skills, (iii) Interpersonal and Communication Skills, (iv) Physical Skills, (v) Initiative and Independence, (vi) Physical Demands, (vii) Mental Demands, (viii) Emotional Demands, (ix) Responsibility for People, (x) Responsibility for Supervision/Direction/Co-ordination of Employees, (xi) Responsibility for Financial Resources, (xii) Responsibility for Physical Resources, and (xiii) Working Conditions.

How does Job Evaluation affect me?

A Job Evaluation team, including trade union stewards and Council employees, has evaluated hundreds of jobs over the past two years (stage 1) and the result of that exercise has established a rank order, based on the scores given for each of the 13 factors, for all posts graded between scp4 – 34.  Each employee should receive a new contract of employment (Statement of Particulars) and a breakdown of the Job Evaluation scores for each factor from the Council. 

Implementation Timetable

Due to the size of the Job Evaluation project the Council has decided to implement the scheme in the following stages:

• First Stage:  all jobs up to and including scp34 by July 2008

(this would not include school based employees or any posts whose grade maximum exceeds scp34)

• Second Stage:  all school based employees by September 2008  

• Third Stage:  all jobs from scp35 up to Heads of Service by April 2009

• Fourth Stage:  Heads of Service and above by April 2009 

It is the Council’s intention to use a separate Job Evaluation scheme to evaluate the jobs in Stages 3 and 4.

Grading Structure and Increments

Implementation of the first stage will affect over 5,500 employees who have been employed on either manual grades 1 to 8 or on officer grades scale 1 to SO2.  The new structure will replace these with the following 8 new grades:

 Each grade will have at least three spinal column points / increments through which employees can progress.  All new appointments will start at the bottom of the grade unless specified criteria are met.

After implementation of the first stage of the scheme 2607 employees will receive an increase in their grade of pay, of which 2112 (81%) employees will be women and 1981 (76%) employees will be former manual workers, and 2970 (54%) employees will see no change to their current pay.  Although Retainer Pay will no longer be paid, members who have received it in the past will still see at least a 9% increase in their base pay.

The outcomes of the Job Evaluation implementation would be back dated to 1st April 2007 which would mean that any changes in base rate of pay would be paid from that date.  Changes in the harmonised conditions for working evenings and weekends would not be backdated but would commence from 1st July 2008 if the package is agreed.  Any pay protections required would also begin from 1st April 2007 and would last for 3 years.

What happens next?

Subject to the outcome of the ballot and ratification of the proposals by the Council’s Cabinet members, the new grades and harmonisation arrangements will be implemented on 1st July 2008.

The Council will then issue new job descriptions for every job on every grade and this exercise should be completed by summer 2009.  Stages two, three and four of Job Evaluation will be progressed with interviews continuing to be undertaken.

Every member will have the right to appeal against their proposed Job Evaluation score but they should contact the Branch Office in the first instance for advice and information, as individual factor scores can go down as well as up when considered as part of an appeal.

UNISON’s View

• UNISON cannot endorse the partial implementation as such an implementation cannot meet and pass the tests set out in the EOC Code of Conduct.  While many of you will know which pay band the Job Evaluation will place you in, others will not have this information.

• However, Stage 1 represents a significant step forward in achieving equal pay with 42.99% of posts being upgraded, of which 81.17% are women.  The number of posts requiring protection is 2.27%.  UNISON appreciates this strong attempt to narrow and then remove the infamous ‘pay gap’.

• Most of the changes to terms and conditions represent an improvement for many workers.  If you work in a school though, this may depend on the agreement of your school and you may need UNISON’s support to get this.

So, while there are benefits and achievements in closing the pay gap and improvements to terms and conditions, UNISON can’t recommend acceptance of the package because of unknown outcomes of the phased implementation proposal.

Please use your vote and return your ballot paper in the envelope provided.