Archived decisions

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority

Item 5

Personnel Committee

17 December 2003

Firefighters Pay Award and Associated Transition from Rank to Role

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Contact:

John Bonney, Deputy Chief Fire Officer

Tel: 023 8064 4000 Ext 207

1

Summary

1.1

The report seeks to appraise members of the latest national position in relation to the settlement of the firefighter pay award and the associated modernisation programme. An explanation of the change to the rank structure, agreed as part of the overall deal is also provided. Members are requested to note the considerable organisational change associated with the agreement and the significant questions that still surround detailed implementation.

2

Introduction

2.1

The industrial action which surrounded the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) pay claim of 40% is now well known. The "heads of agreement" between the FBU and National Employers, which concluded the industrial action amounted to a framework not only for a new pay formula, but a major overhaul of the rank structure, scheme of conditions of service and effectively a redefinition of the roles of firefighters, officers, Authority members and the NJC framework.

2.2

Since the initial agreement in June 2003 the employers and Union have been working hard to develop the original proposals into a detailed implementation plan. This plan needs to meet not only the specified milestone dates, but also be sufficiently clear for Authorities to act consistently and in the spirit of the agreement. This is important not just for uniformity in terms of implementation but also to ensure that the verification exercise to be undertaken by the Audit Commission can be progressed. Specifically, it is intended that provided the Audit Commission are satisfied that Authorities are making progress, the further planned pay rises can be made.

2.3

There is however some tension in this arrangement given that one of the main thrusts of the modernisation package is to allow much more local discretion and flexibility in terms of applying the general conditions.

2.4

By way of an intended update, the joint secretaries of the National Joint Council (NJC) issued a "position statement" on 21 October 2003 (Appendix 2). The status of this document has caused some confusion. However, its purpose was to catalogue in some detail the work completed to date on fleshing out the agreement so that the employers' and employees' side respectively could seek endorsement for the work. Whilst the national employers collectively agreed the statement, the Fire Brigades Union was unable to agree to the details even though these had been agreed by the joint secretaries.

3

Implications of the "Status Report"

3.1

The status report covers a raft of issues and includes a detailed framework of pay scales and allowances for various employee groups (i.e., Wholetime, Retained and Control).

3.2

The pay model proposed, whilst seeking to provide the £25,000 pay level for a competent fighter, also sought to satisfy a number of other parameters including maintaining sufficient differentials between roles, transposing the salary scales to a role based structure (ie moving from Sub Officer to Watch Manager) and most importantly remain with a 7% overall pay bill increase. It also provided for a pay structure for retained personnel which gives them parity with their wholetime colleagues.

3.3

To achieve this new pay model, a complete pay assimilation process has commenced. This involves not only transferring an individual from their present rank to a new role, but selecting their particular salary scale based on their competence, special responsibilities and length of service increments. This represents an enormous work up by both Hampshire County Council Payroll and the Service's pay team, since it involves a huge number of calculations. This situation is reflected across the country.

3.4

In terms of competence, staff will be regarded as either in development or competent. To assist the process in the first instance, all wholetime staff who have four years of service will be deemed competent. For retained, the criteria applied for competence will be to have been in post on 6 November 2003. In future however, there will need to be sufficient assessment infrastructure in place to determine competence case by case. This is very much in line with the Integrated Personal Development System (IPDS).

3.5

Work is now underway to calculate the final salary levels of all staff when the full scheme is implemented and staff are currently being advised of this process.

3.6

It is understood that one of the main reasons for the FBU's refusal to endorse the status report was the issue of deferring payment. Their view was that the Union's commitment to the modernisation programme is evident from their involvement in developing the status report. However, they were unwilling to formally endorse until the full 7% payment is paid on 7 November 2003. Hence a `chicken and egg' situation existed. It is for this reason that the FBU balloted its members on whether to accept the phased payment rather than the modernisation package itself. This ballot resulted in a 3 to 1 acceptance of the phased approach.

4

Rank to Role Assimilation

4.1

A key element of the modernisation programme is acceptance of the Integrated Personal Development System (IPDS). As members are aware, IPDS is predicated on people developing and achieving competence in the job role rather than the traditional approach of training. Fundamental to this is a movement away from rank to role based titles, this has an added benefit for the employers of collapsing eleven ranks to seven roles. It was originally envisaged that IPDS implementation would incorporate a single transition from the current rank structure to a role based one. This has now been complicated as the firefighter's pay award is linked to this shift to roles. Now not only is a new pay structure to be applied but this will be overlaid with a new set of organisational roles.

4.2

It is proposed that there will need to be a two stage approach to the transition. In the first instance assimilating rank to roles for pay purposes. To achieve this, guidance has been issued by the national employers to assist the process. However, there is some discretion in this, not at firefighter or junior ranks, but certainly for middle managers such as Assistant Divisional Officers and Station Officers (who could be placed in the role based framework at a number of points). This discretion however is strictly limited, if we are to keep within a 7% increase in the paybill. There are, however, a number of posts in the service which are not easily assimilated into the prescribed structure. This is the result of Hampshire's fairly unique arrangement at senior level where, the rank of Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) is not held as a position.

4.3

Originally it had been envisaged that the transition would incorporate a careful analysis of the functions postholders currently undertake and map this against the IPDS expected outcomes for certain job roles (for managers). However, because of the importance of the pay imperatives, this will not be possible. However, the opportunity to evaluate current posts should not be lost and hence a second stage is proposed.

4.4

Following the pay assimilation there will be the need for a wholesale job evaluation process for uniformed staff. This will involve a detailed and objective assessment of post holder responsibilities which can then be matched much more precisely to the role map. This would be a similar exercise to the support staff grading review. However, it is anticipated that this would have to be undertaken within the context of a developing Integrated Risk Management Plan. Simply put, with the new focus upon prevention, protection and expanded responsibilities for service delivery beyond fire risk, the scope and structure of the service will need to change. The job evaluation process will form a fundamental part of that redesign.

4.5

At this stage it is too early to give more detail on what this job evaluation process will reveal. In the first instance, given the easier matching to job roles at firefighter, crew and watch manager level, the impact on stations may be minimal. However, at middle and senior levels where there are many posts of a more specialist nature, they are less easy to match precisely against the definitions in the role maps. Here, the process may reveal anomalies between job content and present rank. Notwithstanding the need to maintain crucial operational cover at officer level, some adjustments may be necessary.

5

Financial Implications

5.1

Budget estimates of £1.047 m have been calculated for the full cost of the 7% pay rise from November 2003 to April 2004 (although initially only 3.5% will be payable). Full year costs in 2004/2005 are estimated at £3.533 m and a provision has been made in next year's revenue budget estimates. Within those sums is an amount of £297,000 to fund pay protection which forms part of the settlement.

Conclusion

Whilst we are still awaiting the result of the current ballot, it is clear that settling pay levels is not the end but rather the beginning of a process of fundamental organizational redesign. Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, as a result of previous experience with grading reviews has some advantage over other fire services. However, the impact on staff and the call on resources to undertake such an exercise cannot be underestimated. Furthermore, the value of independent specialist advice was recognized in the Green Book grading review and as a result, a budget bid for the use of such assistance again for uniformed exercise is to be made in this year's budget round.

European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998

Recommendations

To note the proposed approach to rank to role assimilation and the intention to carry out a second phase job evaluation process. To note the proposal for a budget bid in relation to this job evaluation exercise.

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose the facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of the report.

None

Appendices

1

NJC Position Statement (21.10.03)

File ref: Secretarial/WP/word/Corporate/HFRA: HFRA Personnel 17 12 03 Pay Award JBcem/18/11/2003