Winners and Losers

With the onward march of the Council's Job Evaluation process and the looming possibility that our members will be expected to bear the brunt of attempts by the council to dig themselves out of an £8m sized hole, you could be forgiven for thinking that all employees might be asked to tighten their belts. Not so.

Just a little information that might provide some context and might warm the cockles of your, apparently well-paid, little hearts.

The recently released Authorities Statement of Accounts has shown that the number of Council officers earning salaries of over £50k a year has increased by 25% in the last year!

What this means in plain figures is this; there are 53 managers paid between £50 -60k (up from 35 last year); the number on £70 -80k doubled from 8 to 16 last year; two senior managers earn £110 -120k (compared to none last year) and two managers earn £130 -140k!

Now we are not financial whizzkids in the Unison office, but that looks to us like additional spending on management posts of approximately £1.9m over last year!

Of course, we probably don't need to remind you but just in case you have been living in a cave for the last 4 months, this "efficient," use of resources sits alongside the £3,000 per week it is costing to keep the Managing Director on "gardening leave!"

We are sure that you are all resting comfy in the knowledge that the management of the Authority rests in such well paid hands and that you will not be feeling at all nervous that the very people who are charged with making decisions about how your pay will be affected by Job Evaluation are themselves so adequately rewarded!

Just to top this all off, the publically available Cabinet report, considered at the meeting on 29 November, makes interesting reading (well ok, not interesting as such, but you know what we mean). The point is well made that competency levels amongst managers for Financial Management vary widely - ranging from "proactive management," through to "sheer non-acceptance of responsibility."

We do not believe that you and your colleagues, delivering public services day in and day out, should be made to pay the price for management failures and for a political agenda that sees pay cuts and reductions in services as the inevitable future for DMBC staff and the people of Doncaster.

Watch this space brothers and sisters.