What was a £30,507.67 ex-gratia payment made by Wirral Council for?

What was a £30,507.67 ex-gratia payment made by Wirral Council for?

What was a £30,507.67 ex-gratia payment made by Wirral Council for?

                                                 

Each month Wirral Council publishes a monthly list of all payments over £500 made to suppliers and agencies and a particular entry from January 2015 caught my eye.

A £30,507.56 payment was made on the 30th January 2015 to a firm of solicitors called Jackson & Canter. So what you might say, doesn’t Wirral Council seek legal advice quite often?

It was the description of the payment that caught my eye as it was down as “Ex-Gratia Payments”. So what is an ex-gratia payment? Well it’s probably a voluntary payment to a former employee, by Wirral Council without Wirral Council admitting liability.

Back in April 2012 councillors agreed that “all Compromise Contracts except those to settle litigation and those requiring a payment of £30,000 or less” would be decided by councillors instead of officers. In addition to this a report on compromise contracts agreed was supposed to be brought to each meeting of the Employment and Appointments Committee.

The compromise contracts for both David Garry and Bill Norman happened in this way with councillors making the final decision on them.

The whole definition of a ex-gratia payment is that there’s no legal obligation to make it. This notice of motion agreed by Council shows when the change was made.

So, what’s this payment of £30,507.56 for (and let’s hope it’s not to pay someone to keep quiet about something)? Should councillors have agreed to it? Have constitutional changes made to Wirral Council’s constitution since 2012 meant that what was agreed by politicians 2012 is no longer the case and officers have the final say on such matters (if so when did that change get made and does it overrule what Council agreed)? If the payment was made to a senior officer (or a former senior officer) is there a public interest in the public knowing who it was made to?

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Employment and Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) 27th March 2013 Compromise Contracts Part 2

A page detailing the money paid out to former Wirral employees in compromise contracts between November 2012 and March 2013

As at least one reader has according to Wirral Council, an obsessive interest in compromise contracts, so this is for you and the small numbers of people actually interested in the subject.

Item 11 was originally an exempt appendix, but councillors decided not to consider it in exempt session (although it’s still not published on Wirral Council’s website).

Page 56 was blank (so I didn’t scan it in), but here’s page 55 (click for a larger version).

Compromise Contracts

It details the £¼ million paid out by Wirral Council to nine employees in compromise contracts since mid-November. So why did the officers want to keep this page a secret? The covering report contains the line “Compromise Contracts for EVR exercises should remain within the bounds of existing delegated authority and policies.” Reading between the lines does that mean HR could make a whistleblower redundant under the guise of redundancy which would avoid any democratic scrutiny of the compromise contract? Answers in the comments please.

Employment and Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) 27th March 2013 Compromise Agreements Part 1

Employment and Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) meeting of the 27th March 2013 Compromise Agreements

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The agenda and reports for this meeting can be found on Wirral Council’s website.

Present:
Cllr Paul Doughty (Chair)
Cllr Phil Davies
Cllr George Davies
Cllr Adrian Jones
Cllr Chris Jones (deputy for Cllr Ann McLachlan)
Cllr Peter Kearney
Cllr Lesley Rennie
Cllr Jeff Green

The Chair Cllr Paul Doughty welcomed people to the Employment and Appointments Committee meeting, he asked for any declarations of interest. No declarations of interest were made. He said he had received apologies from the Lib Dem spokesperson Cllr Mark Johnston and it would be possible that Cllr Harney would arrive in his place.

He gave those on the committee extra time to read the minutes of the meetings held on the 7th February and 14th February (copies of which had been handed out) as these hadn’t been included in the reports pack. Cllr Jeff Green asked if these had been published on the intranet, an officer answered that they had. Cllr Jeff Green then asked when they had been published. The officer said they hadn’t had a meeting since the 14th February, there was due to be one [on the 11th March] but it had been cancelled. The Chair asked if there were any matters arising, nobody raised any so the minutes were agreed.

Cllr Green asked if the dates of the meeting were correct, the Chair said they were right in his diary. Tony Williams (Human Resources Manager) pointed out a correction to be made to the minutes. The Chair asked if they were happy for him to sign the minutes?

The Chair said that agenda item 11 on Monitoring Compromise Agreements had been dealt with in the open part of the meeting last time and he proposed the same at this meeting.

Cllr Green said they were simply appendices and he couldn’t spot anything specific.

Chris Hyams said that referring to item ten, she was recommending it stays exempt. Cllr Jeff Green said that it didn’t identify people, but Chris Hyams disagreed and said individuals could be identified. Cllr Green asked how anyone would do that as he could see no reason at all for it to exempt as individuals would be really difficult to identify. Chris Hyams said that the report had been consistently exempt and individuals could be identified. The Chair said for consistency they would continue with item 10 being exempt. Cllr Green asked how you could see who the individuals are?

Cllr Chris Jones said that people know who’s on the redeployment register so they would be able to identify them. Surjit Tour said that the test was if through reasonable inquiry they could work out who the individuals were or could enable their identity to be revealed.

Chris Hyams said that when the numbers were lower it was easier to identify individuals.

The Chair moved the meeting on to item 3 (Managing Attendance).

Employment and Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) 15th November 2012: Compromise Contracts and Grievance Policy Changes

Employment and Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) 15th November 2012: Compromise Contracts and Grievance Policy changes

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Last Thursday’s Employment and Appointments Committee had the usual regular report on attendance. However it was the new Employee Relations Performance Report that received some press coverage in the Wirral News about the large percentage of employees that have had dealings with Human Resources in the Department of Adult Social Services (which according to the quote in the article from the Director mainly involve “absence management”). An extension to the current Occupational Health contract with Capita Health and Well being was also agreed.

Changes to the Grievance Policy were also agreed with the aims of the changes to speed up the process and give more of a role to line managers.

Outside of the more high-profile compromise contracts reported in the media, compromise contracts totalling nearly £100,000 covering three employees had been agreed by officers.

The agenda and reports for this meeting can be read on Wirral Council’s website.

Employment and Appointments Sub-Committee (Compromise Contracts) (Wirral Council) 20th September 2012

Employment and Appointments Sub Committee Compromise Contracts 20th September 2012
Employment and Appointments Sub-Committee (Compromise Contracts)
Date: 
20/9/2012
Time: 5.15pm

Committee Room 4

Employment and Appointments Subcommittee (Compromise Contracts)
Cllr Chris Meaden, Labour
Cllr Andrew Hodson, Conservative
Cllr Mark Johnston, Liberal Democrat

Officers
Andrew Mossop, Committee Services Officer
Surjit Tour, Acting Director of Law, HR and Asset Management
Chris Hyams Head of HR and Organisational Development
Tony Williams, Employee Relations

In attendance
Cllr Jeff Green, Conservative
Cllr Adrian Jones, Labour, Cabinet Member (Corporate Services)
Two members of public

1 Appointment of Chair
Cllr Andrew Hodson proposed Cllr Chris Meaden as Chair.
Cllr Mark Johnston seconded Cllr Chris Meaden as Chair.
There were no other nominations for Chair.
Cllr Chris Meaden was appointed as Chair.
Cllr Chris Meaden took the Chair.

2 Declarations of Interest
The Chair, Cllr Chris Meaden, asked if anybody had any declarations of interest to make. None were made by Cllrs Meaden, Hodson or Johnson.

3. Exclusion of press/public
The Chair asked if the Sub-Committee agreed to exclude members of the press and public for agenda item 4 by a resolution moved using s.100(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 c. 70 (information relating to any individual). The other members of the Subcommittee, Cllr Mark Johnston and Cllr Andrew Hodson agreed with her.

The two members of the public left the meeting.

4. Compromise Contract
A four page report of Chris Hyams, Head of HR and Organisational Development (in conjunction with Legal) was considered by the Sub-Committee of Cllrs Meaden, Johnston and Hodson regarding a recommendation about a proposed compromise contract of over £30,000 to terminate the employment of a Wirral Council employee’s contract (who wasn’t a member of school staff).