Following the news that Hambleton District Council and Selby District Council are to make enhanced redundancy payments to senior executives, the North Yorkshire local government branches of UNISON have issued the following statement:
Our expectation is that all Council staff should be treated fairly and equally.
Redundancy payments should be in line with existing Council policy and contractual entitlement. There should be no additional payments to any staff, regardless of what role they undertake at the Council.
We would not accept a situation where those staff who are already very well paid are able to negotiate themselves better deals than lower paid workers.
How would that look to hard working council staff and local residents who are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis?
District Chief Executives, and other senior executives, should be given fair notice of redundancy and receive fair entitlement to redundancy pay. Nothing more. The residents of North Yorkshire should not be subsidising any enhanced exit packages for any of the Chief Executives or senior executives.
If other district and borough councils follow Hambleton and Selby, we would obviously oppose the proposals and we would expect that elected councillors would too.
Councillors have a duty to ensure value for money, and that they spend public funds wisely. We think they would be failing in their duties to residents and staff if they approve enhanced exit packages for well-paid senior executives.
