Wirral reviewing overtime payments to council staff

Mar 16 2011 By Liam Murphy

WIRRAL Council is reviewing its £7m bill for overtime and extra payments to staff to reduce costs/

The review is part of the authority’s Strategic Change Programme and deputy council leader Simon Holbrook said they would seek to eliminate structural overtime.

A report on employee pay costs to be presented to next week’s excellence scrutiny committee said: "The purpose of the review of employee pay costs is for the council to be aware of the costs paid to employees in addition to basic salary, so that the costs can be reviewed and managed appropriately."

According to the report basic pay cost the council £122.9m in 2009-10, rising to a projected £123.4m in 2010-11.

However, additional pay cost the authority £7.3m last year and is expected to be £6.2m in 2010-11.

The fall followed measures introduced in 2010-2011 to reduce employee costs which included improved management of additional hours and overtime, and the requirement for all requests to be authorised by a chief officer.

Extra payments can be made for a variety of additional duties, ranging from overtime pay, payments for working unsociable hours, call-outs, clothing, mileage – which accounted for around £1.28m in 2009-10 – and even cycle mileage which paid at casual car user rate and is set rise from £3,128 to £4,309 in 2010-11.

The report said the 2011/12 budget assumes a £300,000 reduction in car mileage and a £250,000 reduction in "non-contractual payments due to voluntary leavers".

"The purpose of the review of employee pay costs is for the council to be aware of the costs paid to employees in addition to basic salary, so that the costs can be reviewed and managed appropriately," the report said.

Cllr Holbrook said: "Any responsible employer seeks to control overtime. Some overtime is necessary, but I think as a council we would be looking to eliminate what may be regarded as structural overtime.

"There will always be a need for people to be able to respond to work situations as they arise and there will always be a place for overtime. But we need to ensure it is properly controlled.

"It’s the job of council officers to keep it under control and the job of councillors to scrutinise and ensure they are doing that."