Public sector pay policy for staff pay remits 2019-2020: technical guide

Footnotes

1. It is noted that in some circumstances that the Chief Executive is not the Accountable Officer, in such instances it would be either the Chief Executive or the Accountable Officer who would undertake the responsibility to provide the necessary assurances required.

2. If a public body has a sponsor team within the Scottish Government it will also have a Finance Business Partner who provides advice to sponsor teams on all budgetary matters.

3. Where the financial settlement has not yet been agreed, the public body will be required to demonstrate the cost of their proposals can be delivered within their provisional financial settlement.

4. This will include progression (if proposed), the measures for lower paid; basic pay increases; as well as any other proposed changes to existing pay and benefits.

5. Public bodies are reminded that all new allowances must be non-pensionable (unless otherwise required by the employer's occupational pension scheme). If a public body wishes an existing or new allowance to be made pensionable this will require separate approval.

6. The gross annual salary is used to set a pay floor to provide a minimum annual amount an individual must earn, before tax, to afford a basic but acceptable standard of living. The annual gross salary is calculated on a 37 hours working week as this is the most common length of week for pay negotiations among public bodies covered by the pay policy. This is then multiplied by the hourly rate and 52.2 weeks per year to calculate the annualised figure.

7. http://scottishlivingwage.org/accreditation

8. The pay policy states that it is a "guaranteed minimum increase of 3% for public sector workers who earn £36,500 or less" to reflect that some staff will be eligible for progression increments which are in addition to the basic pay award and will result in an overall pay increase for such individuals of more than 3%.

9. Current salary is an individual's salary prior any uplift including progression (where eligible). For example if an individual's current salary was £36,000 and their progression increase was 1.5% taking them to £36,540, under the policy, the individual would still be entitled to the 3 per cent uplift in addition to progression, although part of this could be paid as a non-consolidated payment depending upon what is proposed for pay points in the same range above the Lower Pay Threshold.

10. For example, if it is proposed to award staff on a current pay range maxima of £37,000, a 3 per cent increase (£1,110) in line with the increase for staff within the Lower Pay Threshold, this would result in an additional £370 compared with applying a 2 per cent increase. In such circumstances, the 2 per cent (£740) would be costed within the 2 per cent limit as normal and the additional £370 would be included under the costs for those within the lower pay threshold.

11. For example, if it is proposed to award staff on a current pay range maxima of £37,000, a 3.5 per cent increase (£1,295) in line with that proposed for staff below the Lower Pay Threshold, this would result in an additional £555 compared with just applying 2 per cent increase (£740). Of this additional £555: £370 would be include under the costs for those within the lower pay threshold; and the remaining £185 would be costed from the 1 per cent flexibility allowed in the 2019-20 pay policy.

12. https://www.fairworkconvention.scot/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Fair-Work-Convention-Framework-PDF-Full-Version.pdf

13. http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/08/2505

14. With the exception of Scottish Water, where such payments are made to staff only if Scottish Water outperforms the demanding efficiency targets set by its independent economic regulator.

15. The expectation is that allowances and supplements are not consolidated.

16. A smaller public body, for this purpose, is defined to be one which employs around 100 staff (FTE) or less. This limit is based on capturing all public bodies in the lowest quartile for the number of staff employed in each of the public bodies directly subject to the policy.

17. The Director may delegate this responsibility to a Deputy Director in specific circumstances where the Deputy Director has a closer working relationship with the public body or when known leave commitments would result in the time required for senior official approval to be more than 2 weeks.

18. The Director General may delegate this responsibility to the Sponsor Director when known leave commitments would result in the time required for senior official approval to be more than 2 weeks.