NJC Salary Pay Scales

THE powers for Councils to appoint officers occur in the Local Government Act 1972 which states in S112 ss.1 “ a local authority shall appoint such officers as they think necessary for the proper discharge by the authority of such of their or another authority’s functions as fall to be discharged by them…..” and in ss2, “An officer appointed under subsection (1) above shall hold office on such reasonable terms and conditions, including conditions as to remuneration, as the authority appointing him think fit.”

In 2005 NALC and the SLCC agreed to sit down and create a comprehensive terms and conditions agreement for the sector which gave councils and clerks some certainty on fair salaries and provided a means of evaluating roles.  Essentially the scheme was built upon the Local Government NJC “Green Book” but was specifically tailored for Town, Parish and Community Councils. The 49 point spinal column point salary scale was extended to 68 (subsequently revised to 62) to accommodate larger Councils and a range of benchmark positions were identified. The process was designed so that all Clerk’s positions could be mapped through a robust evaluation process, to within one of four broad grades each with an upper, a substantive and a lower tier. Clerks and councils who use the scheme can be confident that, provided their role is evaluated properly, the salary that arises will be rational and fair, comparing appropriately with similar roles within the sector and the economy as a whole.

Whilst the majority of Councils who use the scheme can now relatively easily determine an appropriate salary point, the more difficult thing to establish is the number of hours work that is involved in each Clerks’ job. If the rate of pay is right but the number of hours are wrong, then either the Clerk or the Council will lose out and there will be a constant tension over priorities.

in 2013 the SLCC , NALC and One Voice Wales collaborated to identify the appropriate number of hours that a Clerk should be employed. In findings from a survey done at the time they concluded:

• More than 92% of Clerks worked more than their contracted hours.
• 84% of Clerks said their workload had increased in the previous five years.
• On average, Clerks work between three and five additional hours a week although there were some extreme responses.
• 54% of those working additional hours had raised the matter with their Council.

The study group produced recommendations for assessing part time hours which were accepted by all the sector bodies. They identified two factors which influenced the required hours of work in a Clerk’s role. The first are the basic elements which are relatively consistent and apply to all Clerks’ roles, being affected only by the size and level of activity of the Council. The sector bodies made a recommendation that the minimum hours that a Clerk should be employed should be calculated according to the formula shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Council profiles and clerks’ minimum hours

The second factor relates to the functions that Councils undertake. As we know Town, Parish and Community Councils have a wide range of permissive powers which they may choose to exercise and whether or not they exercise any particular function has a bearing on the workload. The study recommended that time consumed on additional functions over and above the basic outlined above should be assessed by keeping a timesheet over a period of weeks and then identifying the time spent on those functions. Hours set should take into account the average amount of time spent on those functions in addition to the basic hours.  

SALARY SCALES (PART-TIME) 

Salary scales and hourly pay rates for ALL part-time clerks are calculated by pro-rata reference to the standard NJC working week for all local government staff of 37 hours. To calculate the hourly pay rate for part-time clerks paid between LC1 and LC4, divide the full-time annual salary by 52 weeks and then by 37 hours rounded to the third decimal place.