Council Pay Offs
Scotland's councils were making the headlines yesterday - because of the £65m they have spent on redundancy payments over the past two years.
As ever these figures had to be wheedled out of the councils - under Freedom of Information requests - instead of being published routinely on council web sites, for example.
Why all the secrecy - and why did only 7 councils out of 32 respond?
But the figures make interesting reading nonetheless - often for what they don't say.
Glasgow City Council - for example - paid out £32.7 million on voluntary early retirement between over 18 months between January 2009 and August 2011.
The council says that this will lead to big savings in its wage bill in future - which is undoubtedly true.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that all this public money has been well spent - or that everyone in the workforce has been treated fairly.
Apparently the highest single payment made by Glasgow was £120,362 - and this is a huge amount of money to pay someone in one go - presumably to a senior official.
Which levels or grades of staff were allowed to leave the council's service?
Few if any front line workers I imagine - in which case most or all of this money will have been spent on senior and middle managers.
So how much of the total went towards staff earning more than £20,000 a year - and how much on staff earning less than £20,000.
Another issue I would ask about are the additional costs to the local government pension scheme.
Does the £32.7 million include the added years that routinely get added on to the retirment packages of senior managers - which are seldom - if ever - made available to lower paid council workers?
Renfrewshire Council spent £14.2 million on voluntary redundancy payments during the same period and its largest single payment was £134,883.
By contrast the largest single payment in Dundee was £12,000 - so what's the reason for such a big disparity in how different councils 'splashed the cash' - all of which is public money of course.
I looked to see if COSLA had anything to say on the matter.
But sadly no - on this issue the voice of Scottish local government - was silent.
As ever these figures had to be wheedled out of the councils - under Freedom of Information requests - instead of being published routinely on council web sites, for example.
Why all the secrecy - and why did only 7 councils out of 32 respond?
But the figures make interesting reading nonetheless - often for what they don't say.
Glasgow City Council - for example - paid out £32.7 million on voluntary early retirement between over 18 months between January 2009 and August 2011.
The council says that this will lead to big savings in its wage bill in future - which is undoubtedly true.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that all this public money has been well spent - or that everyone in the workforce has been treated fairly.
Apparently the highest single payment made by Glasgow was £120,362 - and this is a huge amount of money to pay someone in one go - presumably to a senior official.
Which levels or grades of staff were allowed to leave the council's service?
Few if any front line workers I imagine - in which case most or all of this money will have been spent on senior and middle managers.
So how much of the total went towards staff earning more than £20,000 a year - and how much on staff earning less than £20,000.
Another issue I would ask about are the additional costs to the local government pension scheme.
Does the £32.7 million include the added years that routinely get added on to the retirment packages of senior managers - which are seldom - if ever - made available to lower paid council workers?
Renfrewshire Council spent £14.2 million on voluntary redundancy payments during the same period and its largest single payment was £134,883.
By contrast the largest single payment in Dundee was £12,000 - so what's the reason for such a big disparity in how different councils 'splashed the cash' - all of which is public money of course.
I looked to see if COSLA had anything to say on the matter.
But sadly no - on this issue the voice of Scottish local government - was silent.
