December 2024 Minutes
Minutes of Witham St Hughs Personnel Committee meeting held on Monday 16th December 2024 at 11am at Witham St Hughs Village Hall.
Present Cllr Colin Cook - Chair, Cllr Mark Gascoigne & Cllr Charlie Strickland.
Agenda Items
1. Welcome and apologies.
Cllr Cook welcomed everyone to the meeting.
No apologies
2. To receive Declarations of Interest under the Localism Act 2011 – being any pecuniary interest in agenda items not previously recorded on Members’ Register of Interest and requests for dispensations.
None received.
3. To Resolve to move into Closed Session.
The Committee Resolved to move into closed session, all agreed – show of hands.
Items of a confidential nature to be debated in the absence of the press & public under the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960.
4. To review staff appraisals & salaries for 2025/2026.
After discussions it was Resolved to positively review all staff appraisals, no concerns were highlighted. All agreed show of hands.
A request for a leaf blower from Caretakers up to the value of £200 and contribution of £60 towards suitable footwear for the litter picker was considered. It was Resolved to approve the requests – all agreed, show of hands
The Clerk asked Councillors to consider increasing the Litter Pickers hours to incorporate picking the new part of Warren Lane.
After discussion it was Resolved to increase the Litter Pickers Hours to 16 hours per week, w.e.f. 01.04.2025. All agreed – show of hands. Clerk to advise Action Clerk.
Salaries
After discussions it was Resolved to increase the Clerks salary by 1 SCP and the Caretaker & Litters Pickers Salary by 50p per hour w.e.f 01.04.2025. All agreed – show of hands.
5. To discuss an amendment to the Clerks Salaries.
The Chair made comment that the Clerks contract did not reflect the correct working location.
He proposed that the place work be changed to Hybrid working; to reflect the Clerk works from home as well as the village hall, and to pay a working from home allowance of £26pm.
Seconded by Cllr Strickland – all agreed, show of hands.
The Chair made comment that following the recent late night call out due to the broken boiler, the Clerk is not on call 24/7, he proposed that a minimum of 2 hours overtime be paid in these situations, with a list of phone numbers of who to call in an emergency to be given to the caretakers, with the Chair of the Council first point of call. Seconded by Cllr Strickland. All agreed – show of hands.
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