Test Valley Borough Council General Purposes Committee Meeting

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor A Dowden.

There was no public participation.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no urgent items for consideration.

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meetings held on 29 September 2022 and 14 February 2023 be approved and signed as a correct record.

The report of the Human Resources Manager considered updates to the Council’s remuneration policies, how business mileage is calculated and the Recruitment Policy.

The Council has a suite of HR policies and procedures which are used to manage a wide range of employment matters. These are subject to periodic review and update.  A new Remuneration Policy had been drafted which was recommended to replace the previous Pay – General Policy, Working Practices - General Policy and Honorarium and Recognition Payments Policy, combining all of these former policies into a single Remuneration Policy.  This policy is in addition to the Council’s Pay Policy Statement and sets out the details of how different aspects of pay and remuneration are managed. 

Following implementation of the changes agreed at General Purposes Committee to the calculation of business mileage on 29 March 2022, feedback was received from employees who are working in an agile way from home and regularly attend sites outside the Borough.  This has led to the recommendation of a minor change to the way officers can claim business mileage.

The Recruitment Policy, has been reviewed and updated to reflect current practice following the move to managing recruitment through the MHR i-trent HR system.

Resolved:

1.  That the Remuneration Policy attached at Annex 1 to the report be approved. This new policy will replace the current Pay - General, Working Practices – General and Honorarium and Recognition Payment policies.

2.  That the Council’s Agile Working Policy and Employment Benefits Policy are amended as set out in paragraph 5.4, with the addition of section 5.4 section c) of this report.

3.  That the updated Recruitment Policy attached at Annex 2 to the report be approved.