When we setting the budget in the first year of the administration, it was often suggested that the best way to make the required savings was to cut the pay of all Council staff. We didn't go down that route, but it is still occasionally suggested so it is useful to explain why it is a bad idea.
Firstly, there are practical difficulties. People often suggest that it should only be the most senior staff whose pay is cut, but this has the twin problem that that would not save more than a small proportion of the budget, and it would look like victimisation (which is illegal). Councils that gone down this route have therefore made all their staff reapply for their jobs at a lower rate. The trouble with this is that you are incentivising your best staff to go to other employers, and you also damaging people's morale. When this was done in Southampton, the Tory administration there also had to contend with bitter industrial action.
However, the effect that would most worry me would be the inevitable demoralisation of staff. Since it is the staff who deliver all the services, devaluing their contribution would lead to worse services and the possibility of a downward spiral of decline.
1 comment:
Cutting senior staff pay may only save a 'small amount' but would do wonders for the morale of your low paid staff on whom the council depends.
There is no justification for such high salaries of directors and Chief Executive.
Everyone has suffered from cuts, why shouldn't they? In it together? I don't think so.
Post a Comment