Grading structure / Definition of duties

Common features of all supervisory jobs:

1. All duties must be carried out in compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act; any other legal requirements; relevant Codes of Practice and the employing authority's set standards or procedures.
   
   
2. All necessary paperwork must be completed in accordance with instructions and procedures issued from time to time by the employing authority, eg time sheets, job sheets, orders etc.
   
   
3. The monitoring of the performance of staff supervised against pre-determined standards including timekeeping and attendance.
   
   
4. Supervisors are expected to contribute to and assist with the communication of the employing authority's policies, procedures and management decisions and support them in discussions with the staff they are responsible for supervising.

Dispersal

Where supervision is made more difficult because of the wide physical dispersion or mobility of staff being supervised an additional 6 points should be awarded to all levels.

Contract / Non Direct Staff

Where a supervisor is required to issue directions and monitor the quality of work of voluntary workers or contractors' employees, account should be taken of this when calculating the number of employees supervised.

Numbers Supervised

The determination of the number of staff supervised should be on the basis of the actual numbers of staff employed. Part-time and full-time staff should be treated equally on this basis. Recurring supervision of temporary staff, or seasonal variations, should be averaged on an annual basis.

Where a craftsman is in charge of a craftsman's labourer or apprentice or a general worker is in charge of a trainee, this will not constitute supervision for the purpose of this scheme. No supervisory plussage should be applied, therefore, where such situations arise.

• Level 1
  As a working member of a team this Supervisor will provide regular general direction (as to what task should be performed, where and when) to employees. The Supervisor may also be required to induct/help less experienced staff.
  
  
• Level 2
  This Supervisor may work as part of a team but will predominantly provide detailed direction (as to what task should be performed, how, when, where and by whom). The Supervisor may also be required to induct/help less experienced staff.
  
  
• Level 3
  This Supervisor will provide regular detailed direction (as to what tasks should be performed, how, when, where and by whom) to more than one group of staff carrying out work of a similar nature, including more junior Supervisors. The Supervisor may also be required to assist in the identification of training needs of those supervised and may be involved in the disciplinary and grievance process.
  
  
• Level 4
  This Supervisor will provide regular detailed direction (as to what tasks should be performed, how, when, where and by whom) to groups of staff carrying out work of a diverse nature including more junior Supervisors. The Supervisor may also be required to assist in the identification of training needs of those supervised and may be involved in the disciplinary and grievance process.

* See reference to Dispersal under 'Other aspects of supervision' above, regarding additional 6 points to be added to points score.

Supervisory Rates

1. Supervisors will receive the appropriate rate of basic pay for their own particular job (irrespective of the craft grade etc of the individual(s) being supervised) plus the appropriate plussage.
   
   
2. The plussage will be payable during the periods of authorised absence eg maternity, annual leave, sickness etc subject to the provisions of (iv) below.
   
   
3. The rate is to be taken into account for the calculation of overtime and other enhancements subject to the provisions of (iv) below.
   
   
4. Where there is infrequent responsibility such as a deputising role or where supervision is not carried out all year round, the supervision should be dealt with as substitution providing the full supervisory responsibility is assumed. In those circumstances the plus rate for supervision is payable only for those full, and not part days where the responsibility is assumed and payments will only be made for the actual days worked and not for any periods of authorised absence due to holidays, bank holidays or sickness.

Assimilation of existing supervisory jobs to the new supervisory structure will be on the basis of agreed job description and the new rates of pay will be applicable from the date agreed by the PSC Joint Negotiating Committee.

Where assimilation to the new supervisory structure results in a lower gross basic pay for any supervisory job, the employee will be afforded personal protection from that date. Such protection will be the existing job rate on the basis of '10+4' years (ie. the job rate will be reduced proportionately with effect from the 11th year to reach the correct job rate after 14 years' protection).

If on assimilation to the supervisory structure an individual employee is dissatisfied with the revised grading of the job he should follow the normal grievance procedures to resolve the situation.

Should the individual employee still be dissatisfied he should follow the grading appeal procedures as set out in Appendix 15 of the Memorandum of Agreement

So as to ensure consistency in the application of the scheme, a set of principles should be followed.

These can be summarised as:

• The scheme provides for full permanent direct accountability on the part of employees (or supervisors). Therefore shared accountability does not meet the criteria.
  
  
• On assimilation identify separately those responsibilities in respect of the basic job and those responsibilities attributable to the supervisory aspects where supervision is inherent in the National Job comparators used for determining the basic job grade.
  
  
• Where the basic grade of the job supervised provides:
  
  
  • for a range of tasks to be performed, which are specific in nature and which are recognised in the skill factor
    
    
  • that the work undertaken by the team as a whole automatically lends itself to allocation of tasks due to the number of employees within the team; the type of supervisory direction given would be of a general nature.
    
    
• The draft scheme recognises permanent accountability and therefore the frequency with which there is contact with a more senior manager is not a factor for consideration. The scheme pays full regard to the extent of decisions for which the postholder will be held directly accountable.
• Infrequent responsibility such as the deputising role should be dealt with as substitution and only then where the full supervisory responsibility is assumed.
  
  
• Where more than one group is supervised and the work undertaken by those groups is diverse, the term 'diverse' should be taken to mean that the overall group tasks are in essence different and require differing skills (eg. A supervisor may have responsibility for more than one discrete area of work such as gardens, sewerage and general maintenance or building operatives and engineering operatives).
  
  
• The term wide physical dispersion of staff should be interpreted as the different geographical location of staff which means that daily supervision of the groups is not possible.