Pay to senior York council officers has increased by 50% – despite a pledge to bring the bill down, say opposition councillors.
The promise followd the ‘arguably unlawful’ £400K-plus payoff to departing chief executive Mary Weastell, after she accused council leader Keith Aspden of bullying and victimisation.
Mr Aspden, who is stepping down at this election, always denied the bullying claims. However, he chaired the secret meeting to agree the payout, despite being named on Ms Weastell’s employment tribunal papers, putting him at a potential conflict of interest.
Following anger at the expense of the payoff to Ms Weastell, the council executive claimed it would be repaid with savings of £200k per year
Now Labour councillors say the senior officer pay bill has actually gone up by £400K per year from £805,000 to over £1.2m – a 50% increase.
At the same time the number of top managers, originally reduced to seven following Ms Weastell’s departure, has now risen to 11.
Labour’s research also shows the cost of salaried staff earning more than £50K a year has trebled from £3.7m to over £11m per year during the lifetime of the last administration.
However, Labour is not pledging to reduce the number of senior officers or the wage bill if they win power at this Thursday’s City of York Council election.
| Year | No. of officers earning £90k+ | Total salary costs |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 6 | £650,000 |
| 2019 | 6 | £680,000 |
| 2020 | 8 (CEO departs) | £915,000 |
| 2021 | 7 (Restructure) | £805,000 |
| 2022 | 9 | £940,000 |
| 2023 | 11 | £1,215,000 |
Labour Group leader Claire Douglas said: “These figures give the lie to Liberal Democrat claims they paid off the former chief exec in order to reduce the senior officer paybill, when in fact they’ve done the exact opposite.
“The restructure was very temporary and since then a number of former assistant directors have been bumped up to the post of director, pushing the pay bill up significantly for high level managers.
“Residents will be understandably horrified at the fact that after wasting £400k to make an employment tribunal case disappear, Liberal Democrats have compounded this waste by adding to the senior officer pay bill while key services are being cut to the bone.”
Asked what Labour would do about that bill, Cllr Douglas responded: “If residents choose York Labour on 4 May it will give us the opportunity to look afresh at the council’s senior management team to ensure it delivers residents priorities in the most cost effective manner.”
We have asked the Liberal Democrats to respond and will update if they do.
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