MD2505 Pay award for 2019-20 for the GLA’s Statutory Officers

The Chief Officer, following receipt of a pay claim from Unison on 13 June, has agreed that staff in the GLA should receive the following pay award:

• 2.5% for staff on Grades 1 to 6; and
• 2% for staff on Grades 7 and above.

The Unison pay claim contained several elements as follows:

Tapered claim:

• A consolidated increase of 5% for grades 1 to 6;
• A consolidated increase of 3.5% for grades 7 to 10; and
• A consolidated increase of 2.7 % for grades 11 and above.

Suggestions for an additional award for long-serving staff at the top of their pay grade:

• One-off cash bonus;
• 1% increase in salary;
• Additional annual leave;
• Long-service payment;
• Additional volunteering leave; and
• Better support to secure promotion.

Additional pay and conditions issues:

• Urgent review of pay and grading;
• Additional paid closure days over the Christmas period;
• Compensation for home working (utilities, travel, etc);
• Travel benefits similar to TfL colleagues;
• Ability to buy leave; and
• Additional pay for line management responsibilities.

The GLA allowed budget provision of 2% for the 2019–20 year amounting to £1.3m. The cost of the pay claim submitted by Unison would amount to an additional £1.0m a year over the budget provision for the tapered claim. If an additional 1% were to be awarded to staff at the top of their pay spine, this would amount to an additional £0.2m. The opportunity cost of one additional day’s annual leave would amount to an additional £0.3m, although the actual cost would be much lower as the cost only arises when leave is in some form “cashed in”. Therefore, the overall cost of the Unison claim is at least £1.2m over and above the existing budgetary provision.

The Chief Officer took account of the desirability of weighting the pay award towards the lowest grades, including a comparison with local government, central government and functional body pay settlements, and of affordability.

In response to the claim and being mindful of settlements in local government, the Civil Service and GLA group bodies and affordability, the Chief Officer’s offer to Unison was as follows:

• 2.5% for grades 1 to 6; and
• 2% for grades 7 and above.

The Chief Officer met Unison on 3 July to discuss the claim and to advise them of the pay offer. At the same meeting, the Chief Officer set out the GLA’s response to other aspects of the Unison pay claim.

The Mayor and Assembly were consulted on the Chief Officer’s proposal. The Assembly considered its response at the 16 July 2019 meeting of its GLA Oversight Committee.

The Chief Officer has confirmed that the pay award will be implemented in the September payroll and back dated to 1 April 2019.

The Mayor is entitled to appoint 13 members of staff under section 67(1) of the GLA Act 1999 (as amended) on terms and conditions, including pay, the Mayor thinks appropriate. The Mayor agreed (via MD2067) that the GLA staff pay award – 2% in this case – will be automatically applied to his 13 appointees.

The then Mayor (via MD493) and then Assembly agreed the SSRB’s recommendation in 2009 that pay increases for the Mayor and Assembly Members should mirror future local government pay awards. The 2% local government settlement will therefore be applied to the Mayor’s and Assembly Members’ pay for 2019-20.

The Mayor and Assembly must determine the pay award for the GLA’s statutory officers in line with Sections 72 and 127 of the GLA Act 1999 (as amended), noting that the Monitoring Officer role is in addition to an existing substantive role. The pay of that substantive role is settled through the staff pay award in the normal way. This decision therefore solely relates to the Chief Officer (the statutory Head of Paid Service function is intrinsic to that role) and the Executive Director of Resources (the statutory Chief Finance Officer function is intrinsic to that role), and the additional allowance awarded to the postholder of an existing substantive role for carrying out the duties of Monitoring Officer.

The table immediately below sets out GLA pay awards to GLA staff since 2011-12.

The pay award will be processed in the September 2019 payroll.

The Sponsoring Director for this decision is the Assistant Director of Finance & Governance as the Chief Officer and the Executive Director of Resources have a conflict of interest.

A 2% pay award for 2019-20 for the Mayor, Assembly Members and all GLA staff has been built into the GLA budget for 2019-20.

The award of 2.5% for Grades 1 to 6 will cost an additional £50,000 in 2019-20. That sum can be met from existing contingencies available within the GLA’s budget.

Once all parts of the pay award are agreed, the GLA budget will be updated accordingly.

The pay award will be processed in the September 2019 payroll.

The Mayor and the Assembly have the power to determine pay for statutory officers in line with sections 72 and 127 of the GLA Act 1999 (as amended). Furthermore, under section 5.1 of the Statutory Officer Protocol, the Mayor and the Assembly are required, acting jointly, to determine the terms and conditions of the statutory officers (including as to remuneration). The Mayor and Assembly therefore have the power to confirm the pay award be made to the statutory officers.

The Mayor’s approval must be given via a Mayoral Decision Form. The full Assembly must decide any changes to the statutory officers’ terms and conditions (including as to remuneration).

By adopting the Statutory Officer Protocol, the Mayor and Assembly jointly agreed that, as a matter of principle, standard terms and conditions that apply to all staff appointed by the Head of Paid Service (the “HoPS”), should normally also apply to the statutory officers.

This Mayoral Decision Form seeks the Mayor’s confirmation that a pay award of 2% for 2019-20 should be made to the GLA’s Chief Officer and Executive Director of Resources and an increase of 2% in the allowance paid to the Monitoring Officer, as the three statutory officers.

The then Mayor and the then Assembly agreed the SSRB recommendations in 2009 that the pay increases for Assembly Members and the Mayor should mirror future local government pay awards. The local government pay award in 2019-20 is a 2% rise. Therefore, this rise will be applied to the Mayor and Assembly Members. As the formula for calculating pay rises (in line with local government awards) was decided in 2009, the Assembly and the Mayor are simply asked to note the position.