Council set to slash top bosses' wage bill
THE AXE is set to fall on some of the highest paid council bosses as part of a massive austerity drive.
Politicians have ordered Plymouth City Council's 200-strong top management to cut their wage bill by 20 per cent as part of a package aimed at saving £18million.
The news comes at the end of a week-long stand-off with two of the three town hall unions over sweeping changes to the way lower-paid staff work.
The GMB union caved in yesterday and signed an agreement that will see cuts in the take-home pay of thousands of staff.
But Unison, which represents more than 1,500 council staff in Plymouth, is refusing to sign. It is defying warnings by council bosses that failing to sign could lead to an extra 300 job cuts.
The union Unite signed well ahead of a deadline of Monday this week, after a council-wide ballot came out narrowly in favour of new terms and conditions.
Cllr Ian Bowyer, the city's Cabinet member for finance, said he was hoping to save £200,000 this year from the senior management budget.
He said he had asked Barry Keel, the chief executive, to bring forward proposals in September.
There had been big changes in the structure of the council with the transfer of functions like housing to outside organisations, he said. "This has resulted in a reduction in responsibilities and workload and we need a management structure to reflect that."
Labour's finance spokesman, Cllr Mark Lowry, called for the management cuts to be brought forward.
He said: "The Tories have chosen to hit ordinary workers and the lowest paid hardest, without tackling the senior management.
"Too much of the burden is falling on the workers. All too often the pain is being felt by those most in need.
"It is wrong that low-paid workers are being asked to lose several thousand pounds. The council is in danger of losing its moral compass."
Unison's regional secretary, Joanne Kaye, is meeting council bosses today in an attempt to thrash out an agreement over proposed changes to staff terms and conditions.
Under the proposals, which need to be agreed collectively by all three council unions, workers will see cuts to terms and conditions ranging from overtime to maternity leave.
Ms Kaye told her members yesterday: "We know councils face impossible choices – but we also know that you and your families are facing similar impossible choices and even modest reductions in income causes hardship and difficulty, especially for the lowest paid."
She said legal advice suggested that a reduction in terms and conditions proposed by the council could have a discriminatory impact.
The union was justified in ignoring the narrow majority vote to accept the deal because "good equality practice should not be about the majority overruling minorities".
"The proposals put forward by the council have always troubled us because we feared that there may be a disproportionate impact on women or those with childcare responsibilities," she said.
Darren Turner, Plymouth branch secretary, said about 82 per cent of Unison's members in the city were women.
Many of them, such as those in domiciliary care work, would be hit by changes to the hours that qualify for enhanced payments.
Cllr Bowyer called on union leaders to act on last month's ballot of members.
Stuart Fegan, senior organiser at the GMB, said: "We have reached the position that signing the collective agreement in line with the mandate given to us by our members on the outcome of our second ballot would be the best option."
He said that some equality concerns remained unsettled. "If there are reasonable prospects of success in pursuing these matters through the courts we will be supporting our members in doing so."
A council spokeswoman said: "The GMB has now signed the collective agreement and we are meeting Unison leaders tomorrow. We are not in a position to comment on what advice unions are giving to their members."
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by Winstonsmith0
Monday, August 08 2011, 11:44AM
“Last year, a German company and Plymouth City Council decided to have a canoe race on the River Tamar.
Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.
On the big day the Germans won by a mile. Afterward, the PCC team became very discouraged and morally depressed. Plymouth City Council management decided the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Germans had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, whilst the PCC team had 8 people steering and only one person rowing.
So PCC management hired a consulting company and paid them an incredible amount of money. They advised that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing. To prevent losing to the Germans again this year, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganised to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager (on contracted overtime).
They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the Rowing Team Quality First Program, with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. "We must give the rower the empowerment and enrichments through this quality program".
This year the Germans won by two miles. Humiliated, the Plymouth City Council management have laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and cancelled all capital investments for new equipment. They are now distributing the money saved as bonuses to the senior executives.”
by Waltersmith
Sunday, August 07 2011, 10:09PM
“@Winston Smith
I am going to be a total hypocrite here but here goes
Our family is in education and the health service.
I worked in a London school of 620 students which ran with 36 staff and 5 ancillary staff. It was a pretty difficult school (ie a lot worse than Parkside) - we got by and each year managed 50% A-C grades in between the knives, assaults, cs gas etc. Now they have 100 staff - exam results are worse. Ther are so many managers and hangers on they don't know what to do with themselves so they go round blaming each other
and please don't talk to me about what goes on in the hospitals in Plymouth! here are so many non managers there they are trying to get rid of the people they manage in the hope of a job!”
by Winstonsmith0
Sunday, August 07 2011, 7:39PM
“Has anybody thought to ask how PCC was ever allowed to become so fat and inefficient in the first place? It does not happen overnight nor does it happen without the complicity of existing influential council managers and officers.
Now that times are bad, Plymouth people have noticed how much is being spent by PCC and are taking a little peek behind the counter so the only option for PCC is to announce, as if they are somehow 'in control' that cuts must be made.
The saddest thing is that a good few Plymouth people will still believe the politicians when they later claim that their prompt action has saved us all money and kept PCC efficient! It is money we should never have been paying in the first place.”
by Waltersmith
Sunday, August 07 2011, 10:28AM
“@Hairyjesus
Plymouth is unique in the UK as having everything going for it and nothing being done.
I think if PCC mangement actually were seen to be regenerating the city less people would be so anti them”
by ewan55
Sunday, August 07 2011, 9:41AM
“Correction ... HairyJesus
Councillors do NOT EARN their salaries they GET an allowance + SRA + Expenses...
Pengelly - £40,301
Evans - £20,104
Aspinal - £22,291
Fry - 31,430
Keep it in the family members GET..
The leaves - £68,130
The Bowyers - £50,000
The Nicholsons - £28,751
These are examples from the 2010/11 statement of expenses and allowance issued by Plymouth City Council.
Councillor Aspinal is always top of the pops in allowances and expenses in the opposition group, pehaps she is after Tudors job....”
by HairyJesus
Sunday, August 07 2011, 7:19AM
“Just to help out some of the individuals who've posted here:
Saving £200k "this year"
PCC run financial years as opposed to calendar years so "this year" means the present day to April 2012. Cutting wages takes time. It isn't a simple matter of implementing something immediately. Saving £200k "this year" doesn't mean 200 top managers will lose £1000 per annum wages - they'll lose more. The average is for the top 200 is about £60,000 so 20% of this is £12k per annum. This isn't take home pay either as if these managers have pensions through PCC, this will also take into consideration their employer pension contrinutions.
Vivien Pengelly gets more than the PM
She doesn't receive anywhere near what David Cameron receives. Cllr pay isn't high at all - they earn around £12k per annum. We need to remember though that this £12k isn't their main source of income - many of them own businesses or property or have jobs.
200 managers is too many
I personally agree with this and there are areas where a manager is responsible for just one person. There are areas where the structure looks like a single file of names.
PCC is a public service not a job provider
This is true yet we need to keep large employers in this city and cannot rely upon the private sector - Plymouth is unique in the UK being a large city with no real industry, difficult transport links (i.e. if you live in Plymouth, you work in Plymouth) and around 40-45% of all jobs in Plymouth are public sector. We are out on a limb and have to be almost self sufficient. Do we really want the unemployment figures to soar? What would that do to our local economy?”
by alexstru
Saturday, August 06 2011, 10:05PM
“The faceless, useless, barry blah blah....and the fat penguin.....take a pay cut ????
Why? They should not be paid at all ! The pair of idiots ruin Plymouth as always....”
by JohnRuskin16
Saturday, August 06 2011, 8:44PM
“I think it reflects this council's priority that the cutting of council jobs and salaries starts at the bottom and finally works its way to the top many months later. The truth is that even if Pengelley and her council cronies (of all parties) were to loose 20% of their salaries they would still remain grossly overpaid. We can however, be certain that they will still protect their massive expense accounts and enjoy all the many perks that insulate them from the realities of living in a city where jobs are as rare as hens teeth, where council owned resources are being sold off to commercial organisations on an almost piece meal basis and the ruling groups and interests continue to exploit their positions of trust for their own benefit.
Plymouth is being slowly strangled by the movers and shapers of our community and token gestures like reducing the pay of a few of the leading group will have no effect and doesn't even work as a demonstration of good faith!.”
by cashlift
Saturday, August 06 2011, 4:03PM
“Start with Barry Keel , then secondly Viv pengelly , that will save us a few thousand .
They might return our money which they spent on a trip to South Africa , as I said our money”
by The Art of Dance
Friday, August 05 2011, 10:45PM
“The cuts at senior level have to match the cuts right down to the bottom of the pay scale. I still believe that the senior members can't justify their current salaries and unless those concerned take serious pay cuts there will be much resentment and dissatisfaction from the residents of Plymouth.
Let's see our council leader and executives leading by example in dealing with the economic short fall.”