Pay Policy Statement 2024-25

This pay policy provides a basis on which Gateshead Council can compete in labour markets at all levels and for all roles, enabling the Council to attract, retain, and fairly reward people with the knowledge, experience, skills and attributes that are essential to the effective delivery of services to residents, businesses, and other stakeholders in Gateshead. 

Gateshead Council is mindful of its obligations as an equal opportunities employer, and wants to ensure that people are treated fairly and with respect in all its activities and processes. The Council aims to be an organisation that recruits and retains a diverse and skilful workforce from the local community and beyond, and its approach to the pay and conditions of its workforce is intended to support this objective.  

In supporting the aim of ensuring equality and transparency in its pay practices, the Council recognises the role of trade unions and employee representatives in consultation and negotiation within a process of free collective bargaining. It supports the national machinery for negotiation of terms and conditions of employment and applies the agreements reached in the various Joint Councils. 

The Strategic Director, Corporate Services & Governance, following consultation with the Leader of the Council, the Strategic Director, Resources and Digital, and (if deemed appropriate by him/her) having taken advice from the LGA and/or Employers' Organisation, has the discretion to interpret and apply national agreements if the subject matter is not specifically covered by the pay policy. 

Gateshead Council's main (NJC) pay and grading structure has been developed by creating grades around the national 'spinal column' of salary points. The grades allocated to particular posts in Gateshead Council are determined by job evaluation (JE) of the posts, with jobs of the same JE size being allocated to the same grade.  

The Council's graded pay structures include scope for service-based incremental advancement in every case except for the Chief Executive, who is paid a spot salary of £183,351 and employees at Grades A (SCP 3), B (SCP 4) and C (SCP 5), who are paid a spot salary of £22,737, £23,114 and £23,500 respectively, pay award pending from 1 April 2024. For all other employees, increments are paid on 1 April each year until they reach the top of their grade, subject to the following qualifications: 

• Increments may be accelerated within an employee's grade at the discretion of the authority (exercisable by the Strategic Director, Corporate Services & Governance at the request of the employee's Service or Strategic Director) on the grounds of special merit or ability, subject to the maximum of the grade not being exceeded. 
• An increment may be withheld by a Service Director following an adverse report on an employee.  Any withheld increment may be paid subsequently if the employee's services become satisfactory. 
• Employees with less than six months' service in the grade by 1 April are granted their first increment six months after their appointment, promotion or re-grading: except where their salary on the 1 April would be less than one SCP in excess of the salary they would have received on that day had they remained on their previous grade, when they will be entitled to their increment on 1 April. 

New appointments are subject to the Council's recruitment and selection policies and will generally be made at the bottom spinal column point of all pay bands unless there are special circumstances that objectively justify payment at a higher level within the grade, as determined by the Strategic Director, Corporate Services & Governance.  

The Council operates a recruitment and retention allowances policy which is shown at annexe 2. This allows an additional supplement to be applied on top of basic salary in order to attract applicants of the right calibre, and to retain employees with necessary skills and experience. A recruitment and retention allowance or market supplement can only be approved by the Strategic Director, Corporate Services & Governance.  All such allowances are subject to review.   

In the event of any employee securing a higher-graded post via internal promotion/recruitment and there being an overlap of spinal column points between their current post and bottom point of the newly secured position, the Council will generally pay salary on a higher spinal column point.  

Arrangements exist to protect for a limited period the basic pay of employees who are appointed for various reasons to posts with a lower substantive salary. These arrangements are set out in the Council's policies covering redundancy, re-structuring, redeployment, ill health and disability, and bullying and harassment.  

There may from time to time be situations where employees are transferred into the Council from other organisations which have different pay and conditions. The employees' terms and conditions on transfer may be subject to protection under TUPE or TUPE-like arrangements, and as such may be outside the Council's main pay structure until such time as it is possible for them to be integrated. 

Various pay enhancement arrangements are in place to reflect non-standard working patterns at a local operational level or in recompense for taking on additional duties and responsibilities.  

The Council does not operate performance bonus payment schemes at any level of the organisation.