Browse Sections

• Education
• Roadworks
• Shipman
• Special reports

Council’s ‘generous’ wage bill soars by £8m

Emilene Coventry
14/11/2007

THE number of staff earning £50,000 or more at Tameside Council has risen by nearly half, figures reveal.

Top earners were chief executive Janet Callender – who takes home more than £150,000 – and the head of children’s services, who takes home between £120,000 and £129,000.

Annual accounts show there are now 146 staff earning £50,000 or more at Tameside Council against 101 last year. The biggest rise is in the £50,000–£59,999 wage bracket.

Overall the wage bill, which includes councillors’ allowances, swelled from just over £198m in 2005/6 to nearly £206m in 2006/7.

Deputy Leader Councillor Joe Kitchen said: "The increase in employees earning between £50,000 and £59,999, which includes head teachers, deputy head teachers and service unit managers, is due to a number of reasons, including incremental increases plus a national pay award increase of 2.5 per cent.

"The jump in employees earning between £90,000 and £99,999 is due in the main to a senior manager structure review which was carried out by an independent company. Again, a nationally-agreed pay award was also a significant factor in the increase.

"The two high-end salaries are in recognition of the importance of their role: one as the most senior officer in the council, the other as the head of the Children and Young People Services directorate, which includes around 60 per cent of the council’s overall staff."

He added that the weightier overall wage bill was down to "a range of issues such as pay awards, a big increase in education services, the cost of increments and the impact of starters and leavers."

Tory opposition leader Councillor John Bell said: "It is right and proper that Tameside Council should pay staff a realistic rate of pay. However, while senior management have enjoyed a generous pay increase, the rank-and-file are still awaiting the outcome of a council-wide pay evaluation exercise that could see a third of them receive a pay cut."

Anne Keighley from Tameside Unison said she was disappointed the pay review for management on higher salaries had been completed while the equal pay review was dragging on.

"We are still waiting the outcome of the council’s pay and grading exercise. We don’t know if our members will be winners or losers," she said.

Most recent 1 of 1 user comments