Sheffield Council's £6M Pay-Off Bill

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Sheffield-Council39s-6m-payoff-bill.6189616.jp

SHEFFIELD Council bosses laid off as part of a cull of senior management pocketed redundancy settlements averaging £101,000.

The authority's Liberal Democrat leader Paul Scriven has been slammed for the cost of the redundancies.

Opposition councillors say the payouts could have been avoided by cutting posts through retirement or when staff leave for other jobs.

The council spent £1,415,000 on compensation packages to 14 managers axed in 2009/10 - £455,000 in redundancy pay and £960,000 in pension costs.

The authority has now reduced people earning more than £50,000 from 136 to 122 - in line with a pledge to cut the amount of senior managers by 10 per cent.

Names of those made redundant have not been revealed for data protection purposes.

It has also budgeted £5 million to cover the cost of making 100 staff redundant from aacross departments during 2010/11.

The total cost of the two waves of redundancies to each of Sheffield's 240,000 households equates to more than £27 in council tax.

Coun Jan Wilson, Sheffield Council's opposition Labour leader, said: "In an organisation as large as the council, with 13,500 staff, there is bound to be a huge movement of staff. There are people retiring or moving to other jobs all the time.

"Obviously people made redundant have rights and are entitled to the payments.

"But if the management cannot manage the workforce in such a way that posts can be cut by retirement or redeployment, rather than redundancy which necessitates these costs, it's a poor show.

"I'm not opposed to reduction in management costs but I would have hoped there could have been a more creative way to achieve it."

Would people really have left the cushy council job to go and work elsewhere? I think that point is highly debatable especially in today's climate. Leaving it until they retire, we'll that will help the public purse won't it, allow them to accrue a few more years of pension entitlement that's completely unfunded.

I would love to know what 122 people are doing to receive salaries over £50k and I want to know how many are earning £90k+ and £100k plus.

I would love to know what "creative" ways they could have used to achieve this, yet another BS statement with no substance.

[Si1]

Public sector pensions on their own are not the huge injustice people seem to make them out to be. These will be reduced in due course by low wage inflation, and something more rational will be received by the typical recipient.

However, these ludicrous pay-offs for senior staff to retire in their 50s - and it happens in academia and government too - are just plain theft from the taxpayer.

No wonder Sheffield's such a dank miserable place. The people I know that enjoyed living in Sheffield were champagne socialists who loved the fact their daddy's allowance made them so much richer than the locals. No wonder Jarvis Cocker wrote 'common people'.

Edited March 30, 2010 by Si1

[Saver]

Public sector pensions on their own are not the huge injustice people seem to make them out to be. These will be reduced in due course by low wage inflation, and something more rational will be received by the typical recipient.

However, these ludicrous pay-offs for senior staff to retire in their 50s - and it happens in academia and government too - are just plain theft from the taxpayer.

No wonder Sheffield's such a dank miserable place.

No its not - I live in Sheffield and its actually a very nice place in many parts of it.

[interestrateripoff]

No its not - I live in Sheffield and its actually a very nice place in many parts of it.

I would agree it's not that bad, there isn't concrete all over like most cities.

However the roads are awful with the majority needing to be resurfaced.

[Si1]

No its not - I live in Sheffield and its actually a very nice place in many parts of it.

not the bits near the station - uurgh

but fair enough

still socialist republic tho

[Saver]

I would agree it's not that bad, there isn't concrete all over like most cities.

However the roads are awful with the majority needing to be resurfaced.

thats true - on my road after this winter all the original cobbles are now showing through!

[tim123]

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Sheffield-Council39s-6m-payoff-bill.6189616.jp

Would people really have left the cushy council job to go and work elsewhere? I think that point is highly debatable especially in today's climate. Leaving it until they retire, we'll that will help the public purse won't it, allow them to accrue a few more years of pension entitlement that's completely unfunded.

I agree. Expecting natural wastage to dispose of overpaid execs, in a job market where there are no vacancies for overpaid execs is just not going to work

[RufflesTheGuineaPig]

Leaving it until they retire, we'll that will help the public purse won't it, allow them to accrue a few more years.

This is the interesting park people miss about this crap about "cutting public sector jobs". It's too late. It's far too late. There is nothing you can do now.

So you need to lose 10% of public sector workers. You offer redundancy and early retirement. Those that get made redundant get a big pay off followed by a decade claiming benefits. thos e that take retirement... well:

Pension: 60% of final salary, topped up for early retirement to reflect extra years of service that would have been accrued.

Current Wages: As probable higher earners, take home pay after NI and Tax will be about 60% of Salary.

So you could make all the older workers take early retirement, but they will STILL COST THE SAME because their pensions are unfunded.

Combine this with old people demanding to be allowed to work longer if they wish.

This will leave the government with only one choice, and they will have to take it: Sack the youngest workers first as they will be cheapest to get rid of, probably having little rights bar legal mimimum week-per-year redundancy.

The Boomers have effectively ring-fenced the best jobs and will leave the next generation working in menial or arduous jobs earning minimum wage and paying 40% tax on it.

Edited March 30, 2010 by TaxAbuserOfTheWeek

[Guest absolutezero]

Pension: 60% of final salary, topped up for early retirement to reflect extra years of service that would have been accrued.

That's probably more than they'd get had they retired at the normal time.

A lot (but by no means all) of final salary pensions work on 80ths, so they'd need to do 40 years just to get half their wage as a pension.

[Bloo Loo]

I agree. Expecting natural wastage to dispose of overpaid execs, in a job market where there are no vacancies for overpaid execs is just not going to work

If they were compensated to leave, I would argue that they were REDUNDANT....thats one week for every year...pension to date. End Of.

[Bloo Loo]

This is the interesting park people miss about this crap about "cutting public sector jobs". It's too late. It's far too late. There is nothing you can do now.

So you need to lose 10% of public sector workers. You offer redundancy and early retirement. Those that get made redundant get a big pay off followed by a decade claiming benefits. thos e that take retirement... well:

Pension: 60% of final salary, topped up for early retirement to reflect extra years of service that would have been accrued.

Current Wages: As probable higher earners, take home pay after NI and Tax will be about 60% of Salary.

So you could make all the older workers take early retirement, but they will STILL COST THE SAME because their pensions are unfunded.

Combine this with old people demanding to be allowed to work longer if they wish.

This will leave the government with only one choice, and they will have to take it: Sack the youngest workers first as they will be cheapest to get rid of, probably having little rights bar legal mimimum week-per-year redundancy.

The Boomers have effectively ring-fenced the best jobs and will leave the next generation working in menial or arduous jobs earning minimum wage and paying 40% tax on it.

NO, they are no longer required, they are REDUNDANT. one week for every year worked, pension to date. End Of.

not a problem.