Agenda item

Kevin Gordon, Assistant Director, Professional Services, introduced a report detailing how honorarium payments were awarded to staff. This information was requested by Members at a previous Committee meeting.

The Officer advised that the Council had an agreed honorarium scheme  which provided managers with a mechanism to reward individual employees for exceptional contributions to the work of the council which were considered to be above the normal remit of their substantive post. These payments were normally of a temporary nature and included undertaking part of the duties of a higher graded post over an extended period or undertaking additional project work.

The Officer confirmed that there were other situations which could arise whereby managers may need to exercise their discretion as to whether an employee should be rewarded in recognition of their contributions for specific work. Members were informed that honoraria payments were not paid when an overtime payment would be appropriate.  It was also confirmed that the Council employed a strict authorisation process and policy to ensure that payments were consistent and fairly reflected the nature of the additional contribution made. The HR professional team provided guidance on what would be a suitable payment, taking into account the nature of the work undertaken, or the level of the post for which additional duties were being undertaken on a temporary, and sometimes extended basis.

The Committee was referred to data which showed a breakdown of the honorarium payments made for the period 1^st March 2014 to 31^st August 2014. The Officer confirmed that Finance and HR scrutinised the award of honorariums and Finance ensured that payments were covered within departmental budget allocations.

Members raised  a number of questions of detail including what was considered to be ‘an exceptional contribution’ and the Officer advised that this could be for example where someone covered work which was well beyond their job description. It was confirmed that there was no specific budget set aside for the payment of honorariums.

Resolved – That the report be noted.