Forum Topic

Senior Council staff salaries – a question  for Cllr Taylor

Dear EditorThanks for telling us about the new info concerning Council Spending on Ealing’s website.The presentation of the expenditure items over £500 need a Wikileaks type mind to analyse the data which seems just thrown into an Excel file. But what would you expect from an organisation that is troubled by standards which struggle with going the extra mile?I have not had time to look but Arthur will be not disappointed when he sees confirmation that there are large hunks of money spent by Regeneration by unelected Council Officers..However I did look at the list of Employees earning over £50,000 per year.http://www.ealingtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=info&link=http://nnet-server.com/server/common/conealingspendingpublish001.htmNow COUNCILLOR TAYLOR you come right into the FIRING LINE for this along with JS, the Tory whip and others.How is it that there was such a large increase in numbers of senior staff who came into the over £50K per annum bracket in the last year before the last local election? Combined with what many call an election bribe, the changed picture is not good on first glance.Secondly you (rightly) bang on about the introduction of various staff efficiencies. But your lot created a situation which makes today’s salary bill even more expensive and presumably hard to deal with and more expensive as regards redundancy costs. Unless I am much mistaken these people are on a bonus scheme which is also much more generous than for the junior staff.How many of these staff in the over £50K level were existing and how many were brought in new? Do we need them all? Knowing that everyone in the country before the election wanted front line staff protected, what kind of wisdom was it that resulted in a substantial increase of back office staff? How many front line staff will go because of this folly which the effete Labour administration now have to deal with? This wisdom was even more suspect, because the Labour party have a very long tradition both locally and nationally of mismanaging our finances and you knew the stakes were high as regards winning Ealing again because the tram issue was history.You then (rightly) complain about staff going in House (the Housing maintenance people) and you remain silent about the May Gurney staff possibly coming in house.With a legacy like that,how can anyone know where we stand with the Tories these days? All very well complaining about Brown spending more than we could afford, but it looks as though the local Tories were tarred with the same brush. What do the junior staff think? Are we to be surprised about forthcoming marches next month and onwards?To coin your expression we should be told.

George Knox ● 5717d22 Comments

Funny or what? When I clicked the link to senior executive pay on the Ealing Today website, the message came up "Not found...this page may have been removed...... " etc etc

Arthur Breens ● 5716d

Arthur I just think the url is too long! Try this one:http://tinyurl.com/6l9chqdWill change on the page now.Annnemarie

Editor ● 5716d

George,I am not quite sure why you are taking my name in vain.  Whenever I have been involved in recruitment for either the council or Little Ealing Primary School where I am a governor I have always been a voice for pay restraint.  I am mildly embarrassed that the Conservative administration I was part of presided over a rise in of 25% (from 498 to 621) in the number of people paid over £50K last year.  You do need to acknowledge though that it is not that surprising.  If you look at the income stats (ASHE) you will find that average full-time pay in the UK is £32,178.  Average full-time pay of Ealing residents is £37,145.  In fact 20% of Ealing full-timers earn more than £45,401 so £50K salaries are not unknown.  The way current average full-time salaries are a lot of people are going to get bumped over the arbitrary £50K reporting level every year even if pay is sensibly controlled.  According to the council’s workforce strategy the council employs 3,373 (this is 2,833 FTEs).  So if 621 out of 3,373 earn over £50K, that is 18%.  The council seems to have a similar profile to that of Ealing residents so I am perhaps reassured.  It only takes a few school governing bodies giving heads and deputies another point on the pay scale and another 50 people will cross the pay line and be over £50K.  Unless you know what is happening to the whole pay bill this kind of analysis makes little sense.  If you look a little further into the statement of accounts you will see that pay costs went up by 5.8% last year overall from £327M to £346M.  The figure was high as 100 odd CEOs (traffic wardens in old money) passed from the old contractor to the council.  The previous year the rise was only 3.1%.  Next year overall pay will drop as the CEOs drop out again.  You will no doubt appreciate that the number of employees paid over £150K dropped from 3 to 1.  I am happy to say I helped to contribute to that by doing the recruitment panel for our new Executive Director For Corporate Resources.  The number of people paid over £100K only increased by 1 from 17 to 18, that is 5.8%.  Keep your hair on! 

Phil Taylor ● 5713d

Phil,OK for once you may have tidied up the parting on the few remaining silver hairs! But I was not taking your name in vain and I am glad you have responded with some interesting information.I think that the rise of 25% (from 498 to 621) needs a little more analysis before you can be but mildly embarrassed. It rather depends if these were new people recruited or mainly existing staff who went over the £50K mark. Also I am still concerned that more was not done because of the impending crisis needing job cutbacks.I think it to difficult to compare salaries with what the residents earn because Council employees get final salary pensions bonuses generous holidays and you wonder what hours they actually put in etc, etc. I don’t think this is grounds for the assurance which you would like to rely on, and indeed you are rightly keen to see T&Cs changed.Any way we now have Minister Eric Pickles calling for any Council employee on £58K plus to be named.It would be interesting to know roughly how many people work for the Council as subcontractors so as to get an idea of the total workforce – in house plus out house

George Knox ● 5710d

Re " The number of people paid over £100K only increased by 1 from 17 to 18,"          xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    I fail to see how anyone working at the Council deserves /justifies a salary of OVER £100,000, and certainly not 18. NB, the operative word is OVER, ie not £100k, but more than. These people are supposed to be Public SERVANTS, not bleeding the voters dry. Does anyone think we get value for money and to think of the outrageous increases Labour Councils have demanded  in previous years. I can remember one of 65% in one year a good few years ago, and one at 26% quite recently. Add to the oversized salaries the other perks not available in the private sector, inflation proofed pensions of 2/3rds with retirement at least 5 years earlier than the public having to pay for the local Authority employees and the indecency is even more gross. Probably plus subsidised meals/lunches, drinks machines etc etc. Outside bodies need go through the  " Town Hall " with a fine toothcomb and root out unneccessary jobs, personnel and practices.

Tony Price ● 5706d

An excellent point. And they all try to be anonyous as well!

Luther Brown ● 5706d

I meant "anonymous", actually.

Luther Brown ● 5706d

Not to mention the rudeness and vindictiveness that you get from Ealing's chief executives if you try and contact them. They are above us, the mere voters, fed by the Labour Group and protected by the Unite union... Egypt has it right!

Maggie Tomlinson ● 5706d

What we need is to see the salary and bonus packages of these executives published and to have some input into their bonuses. There is enough of a mess in Ealing to justify that. Let us have a true meritocracy in Ealing.If the Walpole Park is a mess then lets dock the pay of all those responsible for it who have bonus elements to their pay.

Luther Brown ● 5706d

Tony,Don't forget about the subsidised parking in the Springbridge Road carpark.CJM.

Charles J McGregor ● 5706d

ArthurHere is the link re high salaries if you still want it.http://www2.ealing.gov.uk/ealing3/export/sites/ealingweb/services/council/budget_book/_budgetdocs/Senior_Pay_Publication.xlsTP has a point. Those who remember will recall that Brown increased NI so as to pay for improvements to the the NHS. That lead to significant real increases in salary ranges pulling government officers out of their offices. The Councils had little option but to improve their salary grades to remain competitive.That helped increase Council tax over and above inflation significantly.All Jinglebells can do is complain about the Tories bringing in cuts. How many of those huge Council increases actually happened on his watch before the Tories got in 5 years ago? People are contemptuous of humbug.What we do need him to do is to share out the services as widely as possible with other Councils, and so cut out unnecessary waste BEFORE the front line services are so badly hit. Residents want front line services first and foremost. Hard but bad luck on having a load of senior and quite senior managers who do not actually give us the services first hand but sit in offices where the public cannot penetrate to see what they are doing. Sadly for these expensive managers they are not all first priority.We know our priorities. Does the Leader of the Council?It's the attack on the charities, the vulnerable (including mental health) and the Park Rangers which really annoys me at the moment but there is more to come.

George Knox ● 5706d

Re " Not to mention the rudeness and vindictiveness that you get from Ealing's chief executives  "          xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  May I suggest if anyone gets that sort of behaviour from ANY member of the Council at any level, to remind them they are our SERVANTS, here to do our bidding, not to be ordered and told what to do. There must be administration of the Borough, that  goes without saying, but it must be done in an agreeable manner. Always ask for the person's full name incase anything needs to be taken up subsequently. Some need to be reminded now and again we are their masters and they are our servants?.

Tony Price ● 5706d

Re " Don't forget about the subsidised parking "      xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    I was unaware they got subsidised parking anywhere other than the hitherto car park at the rear of the Town Hall. There is no justification whatsoever of subsidising their use of private cars to get to work. They impose parking restrictions on us, even for outside our own houses and prevent us by the Zone system of parking elsewhere in the Borough.It is outrageous they give themselves perks and deny us free "movement ". The Council should and indeed must discourage the use of cars to get to work and to use public transport, like we all have to. As I said earlier, an outside body needs to get to grips with what goes on in Local Govt., ALL of which we pay for. Much scope methinks for reducing costs and local taxes.

Tony Price ● 5706d

Do you suppose that the Southall car park that Council Leader Bell wants to build is meant to provide free car parking for council employees at the proposed Southall council office hub at £10,000 a car park space (£5.5 million for 550 places)?

Maggie Tomlinson ● 5706d

Nice little job vacancy for a Council lawyer here.http://www2.ealing.gov.uk/services/jobs/legal/cr189.htmlI wouldn't mind a non-contractual market scarcity payment of £4,000 per annum being added to my salary.Lawyers are losing jobs in droves.This is surely an area where the Councils could join forces and then break down the job roles so that the non complex work in the job description could be dealt with by much lower paid and more non qualified people?Setting up procurement contracts is demanding at first but with experience the non complex ones are fairly straightforward. Why does a lawyer doing this have to be in Ealing when there could be a West London Councils office dealing with several authorities? P.S. for ArthurExecutive Director - Regeneration & Housing received a bonus last year of £25,967 or 19% of salary (according to the Council website).

George Knox ● 5705d

George,I have been looking at the omissions and inconsistencies in the plans for the regeneration of West Ealing and the quality of the LDF content. Is this the responsibility of this Executive Director. Who decides if he gets a bonus? I've been advocating he gets the sack. Is there a square where we can assemble in our thousands to encourage him to escape to London. Oops! Got something wrong there! The blighter is here already. And he has already decided not to have encorporated in the LDF a large public space in Ealing specifically to prevent any assembly being called to discuss his bonus. I weep George. I weep. Arthur

Arthur Breens ● 5705d

Re " Executive Director - Regeneration & Housing received a bonus last year of £25,967 "            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    Any clue as to why this person qualified for a bonus and did all persons in that Dept. also qualify?. I get the impression our money is being spent rather " freely".

Tony Price ● 5705d

Where is the bonus information to be found?

Charles J McGregor ● 5704d

Re "  our money is being spent rather " freely".          xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx      I was sent this just now, rather apposite?    "This really brings into perspective the figure of one billion. This is too true to be funny. The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases. A.A billion seconds ago it was 1959. B.A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive. C.A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. D.A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet. E. A billion Pounds ago was only 13 hours and 12 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it. Stamp Duty Tobacco Tax Corporate Income Tax Income Tax Council TaxUnemployment Tax Fishing License Tax Petrol/Diesel Tax Inheritance Tax (tax on top of tax) Alcohol Tax V.A.T. Marriage License Tax Property Tax Service charge taxes Social Security Tax Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Workers Compensation TaxNot one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was one of the most prosperous in the world.We had absolutely no national debt. We had the largest middle class in the world and Mum stayed home to raise the kids. "

Tony Price ● 5704d

Re Council Chiefs' salaries        xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    If this link works, it makes interesting reading, especially all the COMMENTS  from which we learn 33% of what we pay in Local Taxation goes to help fund the Pensions of our Public Servants!      http://www.dailyfinance.co.uk/2011/02/14/council-chiefs-paid-more-than-pm/

Tony Price ● 5703d

On A O L News today  :- "Councillors are to be given the power to block town hall salaries of more than £100,000 under government reforms.Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said he wanted to "democracy proof" the award of "mega" deals for council executives.Appointments on more than £100,000 a year will in future require the approval of the full council.The move, as part of the Localism Bill, is the latest of a series of attempts by Mr Pickles to increase transparency and reduce costs in local government.The salaries of town hall senior managers are thought to cost more than £600 million a year."

Tony Price ● 5702d

And now for some disheartening news            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Watch out for the pensions deficit Civil SERVANTS6:26AM GMT 11 Feb 2011 • Total liabilities: £1.18 trillion (£47,000 per household) • Public sector final salary scheme membership: 76pc • Private sector final salary scheme membership: 17pc • Proportion of public sector workers able to retire at 60: 56pc • Proportion of private sector workers able to retire at 60: 25pc • 2009 cost of four largest unfunded public sector pension schemes: £19.3bn • 2009 contribution by taxpayer to four largest unfunded public sector pension schemes: £14.9bn • 2009 contribution by civil servants to four largest unfunded public sector pension schemes: £4.4bn • Shortfall in total contributions in 2006: £200m • Shortfall in total contributions in 2016: £10.3bn* *(OBR forecast)

Tony Price ● 5700d