1. That the Council asks the Cabinet to officially recognise St David’s Day by giving a day's leave to its workforce in order to celebrate our Patron Saint's Day on 1 March 2023 and every year thereafter.
2. That the Council calls on the Westminster Government to devolve to Welsh Government the power to create bank holidays for Wales (via the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971) – in the same manner as already happens in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Proposed by: Cllr Elwyn Vaughan
Seconded by: Cllr Bryn Davies
Resource Requirement and Response from S.151 Officer
?1.
The actual impact of an additional bank holiday would have a significant impact on productivity. As an example, the recent bank holidayto celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee on Friday 3 June 2022 resulted in all employees being entitled to a holiday with normal day’s pay on the additional bank holiday. The Council did however have to ensure that essential services were maintained, with employees working that day being eligible for enhanced plain time payments or a day off in lieu. Taking this as an example we can provide the following:-
The staff costs for the additional bank holiday on 3rd June 2022 fall into two elements:
1.?????????? Unproductive time whereby the staff were on leave on 3rd June or on a later substitute day.
2.?????????? The additional public holiday pay enhancements for staff who worked that day.
The quickest calculation for the staffing cost of one day’s unproductive time, based on 1/260ths of the Councils pay bill, is circa £700k; however, to establish the actual figure looking at work patterns, this would take a considerable amount of time to calculate more accurately.
For those who worked on 3rd June 2022, some have submitted claims in time for the June 2022 payroll, which totals £6k including oncosts. However, staff tend to claim a month in arrears so there are likely to be more claims, but it is unlikely to be material overall.
In addition, care staff in our supported tenancies, home care and Childrens homes are entitled to enhanced pay for that day. The estimated additional cost for that is £72k.
It is also worth noting that as the Jubilee bank holiday fell within the school’s half term and the substitute day for School based staff is not until Monday 18th July 2022 (these have however been factored into the estimated unproductive time).
However, for many salaried staff the work uncompleted that day would be completed upon their return and managed within their ongoing work and flexible working arrangements over the following weeks. So, in most cases there would not be an additional financial burden, although the work hours would be lost. There may also be some costs that would be saved from an additional non-working day, e.g. Utility costs , which would also need to be factored in.
2.
The request to write to UK Government to devolve power to create bank holidays will have a minimal impact on resources and can be subsumed within existing budgets.
If Welsh Government created an additional bank holiday, many external providers who require staff to work would pass that enhanced cost onto the Council, the main services affected would be Social Care and Education. The cost of this would be significant to the Council.
Minutes:
Council debated the following motion proposed by County Councillor Elwyn Vaughan and seconded by County Councillor Gary Mitchell.
1. That the Council asks the Cabinet to officially recognise St David’s Day by giving a day's leave to its workforce in order to celebrate our Patron Saint's Day on 1 March 2023 and every year thereafter.
County Councillor Elwyn Vaughan argued that Wales had fewer bank holidays than the rest of Europe and that an additional bank holiday would bring economic benefits.
An amendment was moved by County Councillor David Thomas and seconded by County Councillor Susan McNicholas to delete part 1 of the motion arguing that for the Council to grant staff a day’s leave on 1 March 2023 would mean significant extra costs. Council voted on the amendment which was passed by 43 votes to 10 with 1 abstention and became the substantive amendment. Council then voted on the substantive amendment and by 44 votes to 10
RESOLVED that the Council calls on the Westminster Government to devolve to Welsh Government the power to create bank holidays for Wales (via the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971) – in the same manner as already happens in Scotland and Northern Ireland.