The clerk keeps giving staff over time with out asking the council

Question

The council is never asked by the clerk but she keeps giving overtime to staff we only no about this when we are ask to sign off the wages every mouth can the clerk just given overtime to staff with out asking the council first

Answer 1

Whether a member of staff is entitled to overtime, and the reasons why it is necessary, should be specified in their contract of employment.
Your clerk may be simply carrying a previous council instruction.  Have you discussed it with them to establish the facts?

Answer 2

Has the clerk been given the authority to act as line managed ( not employer) for those working with them? If so then part of that responsibility would be to stay within budgetary requirements set by the council's finance group and also to meet the requirements of meeting work loads necessary to facilitate the council's instructions. If either of these are not within budgetary targets then the clerk needs to go back to the council to obtain the required amendments.

If not then the council is at fault for not clarifying what is required of the clerk

Comments

The clerk is the line manager

---

In that case then it is for them to meet and achieve the budget for the employees. It is for them to report back to the finance group and presumably the employment group as to whether they are on target to achieve the requirements of the council. It may well be that the overtime is required to achieve the needs of the council and the clerk should be reporting progress on a regular basis to council who can then decide if amendments are required to the clerks instructions to achieve the aims of the council.

Answer 3

Maybe your council needs to undertake a staffing review to ensure that what you are asking of the staff is reasonable within the time given.

Answer 4

Sounds like the council has lost (or never had) a proper appreciation of budget setting & monitoring and possibly doesn’t have adequate ‘control’ of staff possibly combined with a clerk over stepping the mark and taking advantage of a gullible management structure.
Staff costs should be set at budget and monitored throughout the year.
Whether - or not - clerk has delegation to authorise overtime should be within a delegation scheme.
Staff duties and tasking should be in JD & TOR.
If overtime has become a regular, rather than an exceptional, circumstance then either tasking or performance are inappropriate.
If you have to ask the question - should the clerk….  Then it is most likely a systemic failure or inadequacy in council procedure.