You are viewing content from Radio Exe Devon. Would you like to make this your preferred location?
Listen Live

Mid Devon Council staff get bonus and day off

Friday, 3 December 2021 07:34

By local democracy reporter, Ollie Heptinstall

Phoenix House, Tiverton, headquarters of Mid Devon District Council (Image: Lewis Clarke / Geograph)

Praised for work during lockdown

Council staff in Mid Devon are to each be given a £250 bonus and an extra day off.

The district council’s ruling cabinet has agreed to pay the cash and holiday to employees as a thank you for their work during the pandemic and to try to stop people from quitting.

The one-off payment for 425 full-time equivalent employees will cost more than £106,000 and will be “managed within existing budgets,” while the ‘wellbeing day’ will have an indirect cost of around £60,000.

A report to the council’s cabinet said the incentive  was “in recognition of the outstanding work done over the last 20 months” and would be “worth proportionately more to those at the lower end of the pay range.”

Councillor Nikki Woollatt (Independent, Cullompton North), cabinet member for the working environment and support services, said: “It’s easy to forget that during the early days of the pandemic our officers responded to a global civil emergency….from establishing how to keep basic public services functioning through to shutting some services and closing down provision [and] from providing emergency food, welfare and financial support to those most in need, through to then working out how to safely and effectively reopen our services, places and spaces.”

The report warned that “the level of employee turnover is increasing and there is currently a very competitive labour market in this part of the country. This is increasing the risk of service impact due to insufficient staff resources.”

The report said retaining current staff is “the first tool in the toolbox to address vacancy and turnover issues” and suggested the bonus – whilst being in recognition of staff contributions – could prove “better value than having to pay emergency contract rates across a range of service areas.”

Cllr Woollatt added: “It’s of significant concern that we’re seeing evidence that a return to normal has, in fact, been a return to many of the same levels of pressure but without the extra resources that were available during 2020 and increasingly without the same workforce resilience to shoulder it.”

Members of the cabinet were told of a number of ways the council hopes to boost staff retention and recruitment, enhancing its apprenticeships’ schemes, paying apprentices more, and conducting a review of salaries for key posts “where recruitment challenges are most acute.”

More from Local News

Listen Live
On Air Now Through The Evening Playing Whole Again Atomic Kitten