Salaries paid to the 'top ten' employees of Haringey Council

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on May 10, 2016 at 5:51

I'd attend Alan.

Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on May 10, 2016 at 14:08

For those of you who might be interested, here is the Haringey Pay Policy Statement which is required to be published by law.
http://www.haringey.gov.uk/sites/haringeygovuk/files/pay_policy_sta...

Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on May 10, 2016 at 14:19

In the interests of balance the link below takes you to the LibDem controlled Sutton Council's Pay Policy statement which for some reason doesn't actually give details of who is paid what.
https://www.sutton.gov.uk/info/200436/customer_services/1381/pay_po...

Permalink Reply by ChrisTofer on May 10, 2016 at 14:23

In these days of council budgets being slashed left right and centre, these salaries can hardly be justified, can they? Should they be private sector salaries, they would be nobody's business (but the shareholders' maybe), but these are public funds we're talking about. As street cleaning is being significantly diminished, as a council tax payer I do find these salaries a bit obscene...

Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on May 10, 2016 at 15:42

But surely private sector salaries are paid from their income, which in turn is derived from the money you and I have to give them to purchase their goods and services?

Permalink Reply by ChrisTofer on May 10, 2016 at 16:09

Maybe so, but that's optional. Council tax isn't (unfortunately, as I don't feel I'm getting my money's worth lately ;)

Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on May 10, 2016 at 16:17

I don't thinking eating, paying for rent, gas, electricity and so on is that optional!

Permalink Reply by ChrisTofer on May 10, 2016 at 16:41

I don't buy for one second the argument that they'd earn considerably more in the private sector, as if they're gracing us with their generous presence in the public sector. As I said earlier, their job seems to currently consists of cutting off as many services as possible and selling off as many public assets as they can, so not exactly rocket science and definitely not value for public money...

Permalink Reply by John McMullan on May 10, 2016 at 16:45

Remember the bonfire of the Quangos that the Tories promised when they were elected in 2010? That was at the behest of their private sector employer friends who were balking at the salaries that were being paid there. Sometimes the difference was as little as 10% more than what they were willing to pay. You're on the same side as those private sector employers when you rail against high salaries, public or private sector.

I imagine the buy-to-let slumlords of Tottenham do a lot better for much less tax and opportunity for disclosure (not to mention work).

Permalink Reply by 0n59eal4meshz on May 10, 2016 at 15:26

The comparisons with the Prime Minister's salary are a bit misleading.

He gets a large rent-free house in a prime central -London site; rental value must be about £500,000 pa. He also has the use of a massive country house, again rent free. Not forgetting free and often chauffeured transport.

I suspect Clive posted this as a dog whistle for people who hate council workers.,Fortunately the majority of respondents have seen it for what it is.

Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on May 10, 2016 at 15:44

Quite so. And life post PM is so often paved with gold as Mr T Blair amply illustrates

Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on May 10, 2016 at 17:08

Actually the only "dog whistle"  here is by Start Matheson who claims to have "seen it for what it is".  Namely a message "for people who hate council workers".  Which seems to me a rather nasty and unjustified ad hominem personal attack on the motivation of Clive Carter in posting this link.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics

I won't pretend I've had a substantive discussion with Cllr Clive Carter on the issue. But I think I know him well enough to say he does not "hate Council workers".  Such a comment is simply unfair and inaccurate. Clive Carter is doing what some other respondents to this discussion are doing, which is to draw attention to the gap in pay and conditions between top and bottom.

A concern I share.
And these days the concern extends far more widely. Including to the privatised staff working in former Council services. What I have discussed with Clive is the impact on service users. Especially when the drive to contract-out services leads to situations like the recently highlighted home care scandals where frontline staff have been expected to complete work without either paid travel time or proper scheduling between their fifteen or thirty minutes appointments.

I haven't yet read but am looking forward to Professor Robert Putnam's "Our Kids" where the author of the classic "Bowling Alone"  looks at deep and growing inequality in U.S. Society.  It joins the many shelves of new research, articles and books about inequality and its consequences.  There's Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz for instance on "The Price of Inequality".
Rapidly worsening in our own society too, with at least some similar consequences. For instance in health. I suggest people take time to read our own Professor Michael Marmot. Or watch him on Youtube.
So please let's discuss these issue seriously, and not in personal attacks.

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