Cooking the Books' and Council Bosses Pay




ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS. - MagicalQuote

Scottish Ministers currently use a 'statutory instrument' to increase councillors pay which means they don't have to explain themselves or seek approval from the Scottish Parliament. 

The practice of linking councillors' pay to the 'median pay increase for all Scottish public sector workers' was introduced by the former, now disgraced, SNP finance minister Derek Mackay in 2017.

In 2021 the statutory instrument substituted a new salary of £18,604 for backbench (part-time) councillors (from 1 April 2021) which replaced the previous salary of £17,854

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2021/18/regulation/2/made

The 2021 salary increase of £750 for backbench councillors represents a pay rise of 4.2% while the national agreement with COSLA states that staff on salaries above £25,000 should receive an increase of just 2%.

Likewise with the pay of senior councillors, eg the leader of Glasgow City Council whose pay increased to £55,817 from the previous figure of £53,567.

Cllr Aitken's salary increase of £2,250 again represents a pay rise of 4.2% - when the national agreement with COSLA stipulates that employees in the £40,000 + salary bracket should receive a pay increase of just 1%. 

So Scottish Ministers are treating council bosses much more favourably than the staff they employ - including front-line workers who have kept essential local services going throughout the Covid pandemic.

How can this be fair or socially just? 

  

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