Council Bombshell

The latest revelation to emerge from North Lanarkshire Council is that senior officials awarded themselves an extra £2 million (on top of their normal salaries) during the period when they were making a complete hash of equal pay.

Here is the information provided by the Council in response to my recent FoI request asking for a breakdown of the 'performance bonuses' paid to the Council's most senior and highest paid officials:

2003/04 - £73,127

2004/05 - £178,542

2005/06 - £165,889

2006/07 - £223,509

2007/08 - £150,586

2008/09 - £172,787

2009/10 - £184,630

2010/11 - £188,745

2011/12 - £185,607

2012/13 - £167,861

2013/14 - £191,932

2014/15 - £112,487 

GRAND TOTAL - £1,995,702

Now the big picture is really quite shocking if you ask me, but two years in particular are worthy of further comment.

2006/07 was a 'bumper' year with £223,509 being paid in bonuses despite the fact that this was the same year in which North Lanarkshire implemented new local pay arrangements reinforcing the historical pay discrimination against female dominated council jobs.  

2013/14 was the year in which the chickens finally came home to roost and the Council's defence of its actions began to fall apart at the Glasgow Employment Tribunal, yet still its chief officials were paid a whopping £191,932 in bonuses for 'good' performance.

Now I happen to think that the practice of paying these bonuses is a highly questionable use of public money. Because in any well-run organisation the leadership figures are required to show 'selflessness' and integrity', yet these additional payments continued to be made while the rest of the Council's workforce had to put up with a policy of public sector pay restraint.

In replying to my FoI request the Council provided me with a document explaining the details of the performance pay scheme which I will be studying over the course of the next few days, following which I'm sure there will be much more to say.

In the meantime I will also be passing this information on to Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who I wrote to the other day highlighting North Lanarkshire Council's scandalous behaviour in relation to equal pay.