Agenda item

The salary scheme was developed based on a set salary pro-rata to the number of hours of cover provided, and taking account of station activity levels, on a banded basis, i.e. 0-100, 100-200 etc. Under this system it was still recognised that as activity levels fell station bandings would fall and therefore earnings would reduce, hence at the time of introducing the scheme the Authority agreed to protect the overall pot of money and undertake a tri-annual banding exercise whereby base salaries for each banding were adjusted to ensure that overall costs remained the same. (It was noted that as activity levels fell, earnings would reduce under the grey book scheme.)  The salary scheme was the first in England and required an investment of £600k, and resulted in Lancashire personnel being the highest paid RDS personnel in the country, relative to activity levels.

Rebanding exercises had taken place in 2008 and 2011 taking account of the previous three years activity levels, both of which resulted in some stations moving down the banding system but with the base salary level being increased to maintain the overall pot of money. As a result of these exercises 16 stations had moved into lower bandings, and would therefore have suffered a reduction in earnings, whilst 10 had remained in the same banding and 1 had moved up a banding, all of whom would have seen an increase in earnings. Since its implementation £250k had been re-invested into the scheme in order to maintain the overall pot of money at the same level. 

The rebanding exercise scheduled for 2014 showed 12 stations reducing in banding and following concerns being raised about the impact of this on personnel the results were not implemented.

There remained serious concerns about the benefits the salary scheme had delivered. Therefore as part of the RDS Strengthening and Improving agenda it was agreed to undertake a more fundamental review of the scheme to determine whether it remained fit for purpose or if not what amendments were required, recognising that any additional investment required must deliver improvements.

Review

In order to review the scheme a questionnaire was sent to all RDS units asking them:

·        what works in the current salary;

·        what doesn’t work and why it doesn’t;

·        what changes you would propose;

·        what you anticipate the impact of any changes would be in terms of our core issues of recruitment, retention and availability.

Out of 29 units only 11 responded, and within those responses the standard was extremely varied.  Included within the questionnaire was a call for additional volunteers for the review group, but again this elicited a very limited response with only 4 personnel being put forward.  An RDS Pay Review Group consisting of 8 representatives from the RDS personnel across the service was established and they reviewed the responses.  The Group agreed that any eventual proposal must be perceived as being fair, rewarding both commitment, i.e. hours of cover provided, as well as activity, i.e. actual number of incidents attended, drills undertaken etc. The Group also agreed that any system must take account of current activity levels rather than historical ones, thus ensuring consistency of reward. 

Options Considered

The following options were considered:-

·        Undertake rebanding exercise;

·        Freeze current bandings;

·        Reduce the pay differential between bandings;

·        Introduce a flat rate of pay, regardless of activity;

·        Introduce a banding system based on high, medium, and low activity levels;

·        Implement a modified scheme based on grey book activity payments.

Having considered these the group proposed the following modified scheme based on grey book activity payments:-

Reward for commitment

A retaining fee is paid based on contracted hours of cover, regardless of activity levels. For a Firefighter providing 120 hours of cover this is set at £6,250 per annum. The equivalent grey book retaining fee is £2,945, so this represents a significant increase. The retaining fee is paid pro-rata to contracted hours of cover, i.e. someone providing 60 hours of cover will receive 50% of the retaining fee, and someone providing 90 hours of cove will receive 75% of the retaining fee.

Recognising Activity

Paying for additional activity in line with grey book rates, i.e. a drill, turnouts, attendance or hours at incidents are all paid for on a piecemeal basis in line with grey book rates of pay, currently £13.53 per hour plus £3.90 disturbance fee for a Firefighter.

It was noted that these changes would maintain Lancashire RDS personnel as the highest paid RDS personnel in England, relative to activity levels

Impact

The proposal cost approximately £300k more than the current salary scheme, but resulted in approximately 80% of personnel being better off financially and 20% worse off financially.

Members considered the advantages and disadvantages as  presented in the report.

Consultation

It was noted that a comprehensive consultation exercise had taken place with staff and representative bodies. The consultation was open for 6 weeks, it closed on 21 November, and included:-

·        Letters were sent to all staff explaining the proposal and setting out the impact specific to them;

·        6 briefing sessions were held with over 70 personnel attending;

·        A frequently Asked Questions document was sent to all Unit Managers and included in the Routine Bulletin.

A total of 50 responses were received, as now presented at appendix 1. The majority of these were supportive of the proposal, including that received from the FBU.

Proposed scheme amendments

These responses were debated by the RDS Pay Review Group and as a result the proposed scheme was amended for the following issues:-

·        Rostering – this would now be based on seven personnel being on call at any time, with six personnel being paid to ride the appliance and a seventh person being paid an attendance. (For a 2 pump station 14 personnel would receive a payment, with a maximum of 12 personnel being paid for riding the fire appliance);

·        Providing cover on a public holiday - this would now include time owing as well as payment at double time (in line with whole-time personnel);

·        Future Changes – it was agreed that activity levels would be monitored throughout the period to ensure that they remained broadly consistent. If there was a major change in activity across the whole organisation then the Service would re-visit the scheme to ensure it remained fair and rewarded RDS personnel appropriately.

Next Steps

The Director of Corporate Services confirmed that it was felt sensible that Member approval be required before the FBU sought to undertake a vote of their membership to determine whether the system was supported or not. If the vote was in favour of the proposal then implementation would take place on 1 April 2017. If the vote was not in favour of the proposal then the standard rebanding exercise would take place and would be implemented on 1 April 2017.

RESOLVED: -  That Members approved the revised scheme for implementation on 1 April 2017, subject to the outcome of the Fire Brigade Union vote on this.