Decision details

Harmonisation Offer of Transfer to Wirral Borough Council Terms and Conditions for former Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust employees

Decision Maker: Director of Care and Health

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Decision:

The Director of Adults, Health & Strategic Commissioning has decided to extend an offer of harmonised terms and conditions for those staff on NHS contracts who transferred over to Wirral Borough Council on 1st July 2023 from Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust.

Reasons for the decision:

With effect from 1 July 2023 the contract for the provision of social care services between the Council and Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (WCHCFT) terminated. Consequently, staff engaged on delivering that contract returned to the Council from WCHCFT on 1 July 2023 through a TUPE transfer. This has resulted in the creation of a two-tier workforce whereby staff delivering the same job role are in receipt of different rates of pay and terms and conditions. The known discrepancies have created a number of concerns that have been raised by both staff and the Trade Unions. There is also an associated administrative burden upkeeping the differing contracts of employment and issues relating to payroll, pension and annual leave (amongst other matters).

Trade Unions have pressed for a harmonisation exercise to address staff concerns and improve employment relations. This is particularly in light of the NHS recent pay award (5.5%) that the Council is under no legal obligation to offer, creating further disharmony amongst the workforce.

A set of principles have been agreed with the Trade Unions regarding the proposals for staff to harmonise onto Wirral Borough Council Terms and Conditions. In summary, these are:
• Transfer to the Wirral Council grade for the current role including a move to the Local Government Pension Scheme and local government terms and conditions effective from 1 November 2024.
• Ex-gratia payment of the Local Government Pay Award for the period 1 April – 31 October 2024;
• Ex-gratia payment where any salary difference exists for the period 1 April to 31 October 2024 taking into account point of minimum advantage only.

Any of the 99 staff members not wishing to participate in this exercise will continue to enjoy TUPE protection and thereby remain on the same contractual terms and conditions that transferred over from WCHCFT including related salary scales.

There remains no intention to afford the affected staff the NHS pay award of 2024/25 as is our legal right.

Staff who accept this offer will benefit from this decision as follows:
• Shorter full time equivalent working week (36 hours vs 37.5 hours);
• Access to annual incremental progression effective from 1 November 2024 (where applicable).
• Receipt of future NJC pay awards; and
• Parity with Wirral Council employees

Benefits to the Council from this decision are:
• Workforce on consistent terms and conditions;
• Reduced administrative burden;
• Reduced risk of future litigation regarding the dissimilar terms and conditions.
• Improved employment relations with the workforce

The Financial implications are of a total of £321,717 comprising:
• £181,531 increase on base line salary costs for the Council excluding on-costs;
• £72,539 ex gratia payment, excluding on-costs.
• £ 67,646 ex gratia payment, excluding on costs, of back dated pay award (already budgeted).


Alternative options considered:

The only alternative option is to refuse requests for harmonisation which will undoubtedly result in a demoralised work force and the inability to retain staff in social care and clinical roles, who may look to neighbouring local authorities for similar posts to circumvent the harmonisation exercise.

The disparity in the salaries may create future litigation risks.

Interests and Nature of Interests Declared:

The decision has been taken under Part 3 Section C - Overview and Scheme of Delegations of Authority to Officers as the decision is not reserved to a Committee or Sub-Committee and the Director is satisfied that paragraphs 2(a) to 2(c) apply.

 

Background Papers

 

Adult Social Care & Public Health Committee, Agenda Item 6 dated 11 January 2023

Adult Social Care & Public Health Committee dated 24 October 2022 and 3 March 2022

Publication date: 05/12/2024

Date of decision: 02/12/2024