Shropshire Council bosses escape ‘pay cut’
Saturday 19th February 2011, 11:30AM GMT.
Shirehall boss Kim Ryley and other top level managers will escape “pay cuts” facing thousands of Shropshire Council staff, it emerged today.
The news comes as a county demonstration was staged to protest at the axing of public sector jobs and services.
Thousands of council workers are being asked to reduce their contracted hours from 37 to 35 a week – effectively a pay cut of about five per cent.
But chief executive Mr Ryley, who earns £180,000 a year, and 60 senior officers are not contracted to work set hours and are exempt from the proposal.
The biggest trade union at the council said its members were “absolutely outraged”.
It is estimated that the reduction in working hours at Shropshire Council, along with other changes to staff terms and conditions, will net the council £7 million over the next three years.
The changes are currently out to consultation with staff and unions.
Mr Ryley said 60 staff out of a total workforce of more than 9,000 non-schools employees did not currently hold contracts that restricted their hours of work.
He said: “Shropshire Council has recently undertaken a major review of its senior management structure, which has reduced the number of positions in the top four tiers by 30 per cent.
“The council has deliberately reviewed this area of the authority first, to protect the jobs of vital frontline staff and essential services for local people. All management posts have been redesigned involving a significant increase in the responsibilities and workloads of each position.
“In addition to this, pay levels have already been frozen for at least the next two years. Although the review is yet to be completed, 80 posts have already been deleted, making savings for the council of £4 million in the first year alone.
“Overall, the management review has been developed to reduce total overheads by at least 20 per cent. This is a far greater contribution than is being asked of any other group of staff in the council
“Within their roles, senior managers are expected to work additional or irregular hours to effectively deliver the services they provide, without additional salary payment. As such, they are not contracted to work a set hourly week and regularly work well in excess of 37 hours detailed within other employee contracts.”
He said a 90-day consultation period was under way and no changes would be made until September at the earliest.
Patricia Wilson, Shropshire branch secretary of Unison, said members were “absolutely outraged”.
“When Mr Ryley speaks of the frontline that is where many of our members work and they are not on very high salaries. They also work above their contracted hours.”
Lou Gladden deputy branch secretary, said staff on contracts were regularly working as many as 40, 50 or 60 hours a week.
Mr Gladden said the union had sought legal advice and warned there was a “serious potential for litigation”.
More than 1,000 people were expected to take part in the Shropshire Fights Back protest march in Shrewsbury today.
By Dave Morris
UK News
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….And the hits just keep on comin’!!!
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i must say i am suprised that our councillors are allowing this kind of pay when its against conservative goverment policy to pay anyone more than 100k, please can our conservative leader arrange for this man to me sacked and replaced with a cheaper person in line with government guidelines and national policy
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have you read about his high living at the savoy in london ?? look at the sunday times ! its an insult to all the hard working poorly paid staff who are proud to work for the people of Shropshire but ashamed of these high living antics of this fool! ps there is no such thing as a 35 hour week as job losses mean working longer hours to pick up the work but just without the salary to cover the hours!
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That’s no surprise is it ???.
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No wonder he looks so smug!
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I agree and looking at this page he’s not bothered about public opinion.
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We seem to live in a world of envy where nobody is allowed to have anything we can’t have.
It was only a while ago Mr Union-Man was throwing teddy out of the bed because the employers wouldn’t offer a 35hr week to their members, now they’ve got it! There’s no pleasing some people.
Stop looking at the negative in everything, on the other hand these 60+ salaried staff would get no extra pay for working an 80hr week.
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This is just outrageous. I’ve yet to see one act by this council that doesn’t make me hopping mad. Why do our elected representatives allow this to happen? Sack the lot of them!!
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Gets funnier and funnier .
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And the rich get richer and the poor get poorer… Disgusting.
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No surprises there then. What happened to “we’re all in it together’?
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We are all in it together, some deeper than others.!! usually the workforce not the managers
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I think there might be a special invite from Mr Cameron to explain themselves……..
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Big PR mistake. How to lose friends and alienate people.
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Well that’s great news for moral. I think if I were the council chief I would be setting an example and not taking any pay increases and advising that the 60 other senior officers do the same. In fact I would go as far as to opt for a self imposed pay cut along with my follow colleagues.
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And we’re all in this together!
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So much for we are in it together, clearly doesn’t apply if you earn mega bucks.
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They made the rules to save themselves from any personal cuts.
This is an absolutely disgusting piece of news.
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£18o,000 a year is obscene i would not pay them in washers.
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Typical with the top dogs in any job !!!
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SURPRISE SURPRISE 180 K a year
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Caroline downs who kim took over from used to get 162,000 so he is getting 18,000 more and i am sure we all think he is worth it?????????
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one rule for one, one rule for another
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Well that just says it all doesn’t it….anyone suprised by this gem?
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Same old same old, never the ones at the top that have to suffer, always the real workers at the bottom…bring on the next…
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Don’t forget folks; we’re all in this together.
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What an appalling state of affairs. I have never been a revolutionary but this really makes my blood boil. How these fat cats sleep in their beds at night or look people in the eye when they pass them in Shirehall I dont know. What are our elected representatives doing about this sorry state of affairs. Talk about noses in the trough ,these leeches are wallowing in it at our expense and the expense of all the all the decent people being denied services.
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Phew, that was a close one – no wonder he’s smiling (I think).
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The ConDems are really making a pig’s ear of things – but let’s not forget who’s been wrecking Britain from 1997 – 2010.
That’s right- the union’s friends in Nu Labour .
The Bankers, union bosses, Labour, Tories and this ‘ConDem’ government are all to blame for this mess.
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Come on Mr Ryley
What’s good for the goose is also good for the gander,practice what you preach.
Now you can see why the public sector pay cap at £50k would work,this man by law would not be allowed to earn £180k,Shropshire council tax payers are being bled dry by this lot.
Talk about “Fat Cats” if he was sacked today things would not grind to a halt without him.
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Jeppers
I totaly agree 2 yrs pay freeze and pay cut in August I do so enjoy working for SC and the fat cats get fatter
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Is it April the first already?
Absolute joke – and really unfunny one at that.
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surprise surprise !!
I am all right, I am managment!!
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This just isnt right nor fair. So just because you arent a manager you face the cutbacks so why doesnt the managers have a paycut? doesnt matter what your job title or status if cuts are to be made then cuts are to be made simple. What preferential treatment they got then? They make sure they keep their nest feathered eh? This society is run one way and thats the greedy way. Its the office staff and administration staff and others too numerous to list here that keep the Council going where would these bigwigs be without them? mmmm LOST.
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I can’t believe anyone is suprised?
Probably get a bonus as well for saving money.
Thick as Thieves,
Just ask your local councillor why they have allowed this……..
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Was it the council “bosses” who planned that stupid crossing in the middle of Smithfield road?
I use that road most days,so far i have not seen anyone cross the road at that point.
All i do see is tailbacks of traffic on Barker street and Frankwell.
So maybe if our Council “bosses” are feeling generous they could have a whip-round, and pay to have it removed.
This would save motorists time and sress,
It would also be good for the environment
as cars cause more pollution when stood in traffic.
Would not cost a lot each between 60 bosses
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The biggest trade union at the council said its members were “absolutely outraged”.
Isn’t the other side of the coin that with a 50% tax take – plus a big bite from NI and pensions contributions taxed as a benefit in kind, that £180K could be as low as £80k in actual take home pay? Less for the other members of staff
And for that they have in effect to work a 24-7 pattern. One of the Assistant directors is currently doing 3 separate jobs for the Council.
No guaranteed 37 – or 35 hour week, you work all the hours that are needed to finish the job. Which gives you a rate of just £9.15/hour
Any takers for that?
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what nonsense you spout, do the maths mate you only pay 50% tax on the bit over £150k (and rightly so) so all the first 149000 is not taxed at 50%
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thats the same for everyone – you work til the jobs finished
as david dimbleby would say
Oh,just like having a job then ?
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Good to see that Kym is ‘sharing the pain’
Putting aside all the nonsense about needing to pay top salaries to attract top people – given the cuts we are all feeling – who could not live on half of Kym’s £180k salary?
‘Let them eat cake’ springs to mind
Why are we so willing to let the rich get richer while we suffer the cuts?
Why are we so willing to let the bankers be bailed out by us and stand and watch them take million pound bonuses?
Maybe we are to used to bowing down to the rich, maybe the people of Eygpt could show us how to show that we do not agree with being ruled by the rich?
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Why do we need 60 senior officers, may be it about time their post are reviewed and downsized, doing that along will save a fair amount of money.Instead of always picking on the front line jobs.
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Someone somewhere equally as competent efficient and dynamic could fill this post for half the salary. I guarantee it. So..are we getting value for OUR money? No we are not. Worryingly this trend is becoming endemic throughout national life too as the rats flee the sinking ship in the central pursuit of looking after number one.
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Who says he’s competent! He is only following orders by taking the hatchet to services and staff terms and conditions.
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Before they made the decision, the Council should have done something they obviously didn’t do – ask for their Chief Executive’s advice!
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If this was in Eygpt or many other Arab countries we would be out on the streets showing our disgust at the smugness of this man!
Come on Mr Ryley – I challenge you, here in public, make a statement and justify taking £180k each year from the public purse for what it is you claim make you worth what ever it is you do!
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If this were Egypt many of the “student protesters” who caused criminal damage in London would have been shot.They tend to overlook that fact.
Back to Mr Ryley whatever dose he do?
I would miss the binman if he got made redundant,but as for Mr Ryley i think not.
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what a complete fool
who employed this man
oh thats right, HE WORKS FOR ME!!!
time to go please mr ryley, i pay your wages, now fall on your sword before i sack you
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Sitting in an Office over the winter forced to wear a coat and gloves as the office is so cold! (heating not turned up to save money)
No water coolers anymore now forced to drink vile tasting tap water from pipes that are over 40 years old! (water coolers removed to save money)
Just two more things not mentioned that we have had to put up with at shirehall..
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We never had heating and water coolers when i worked on building sites and in factories.
I took a flask of tea from home at my own exspence.
As for heating you wore warm clothes and kept
mooving.
Welcome to my world.
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When I worked for Scc I was contracted for 30 hours and rarely if ever worked less than 37 hours per week – without extra pay or recognition. My stupidity? yes but it was the only way to get everything done.I suspect that the staff don’t need to go on strike to make an impact – all they need to do is to work to the pay hours. I hope when the 35 hours rule comes in – all staff down tools and log out on the dot every day even if it is in the middle of a phone call or meeting with a member of public – the front line staff earn every penny of their take home pay – the senior managers? – they wouldn’t last a day at the coal face.
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im not even a labour trade unionist type but even i would support the workers view on this, its just a basic issue of equity, either “we are all in this together” or we dont bother doing any cuts its as simple as that, its basic leadership to lead by example, people like nelson and shackleton would be turning in their graves, could you possibly imagine such an us and them attitude in any other walk of life?
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if a 20% REDUCTION has already saved £4,000,000 in management costs then by my calculations
- Shropshire council spends a shocking £16,000,000 a year on senior executives!!!
- A five percent pay cut for them, same as what they are asking staff to take would yield a saving of £800,000 a year!!!!
that means if the senior staff mucked in with the rest you could save 40 jobs from being made redundant, or in shropshire council land, build two more concrete snails along the river bank every year, to create a growing “riverside sculpture trail”
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good points
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Why would they do that when all they have to do is up the council tax as allways?
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they are freezing council tax sparky, but the negative side effect of this is that more care homes and the like will have to close because all these contracts go up with inflation every year so its a double wammy if you manage a budget for the council, your costs go up and your income goes down so you have to cut deeper than you other wise would have to
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what a staggering lack of understanding of his own staff this man seems to have, who doesnt on the odd occassion stay late at work and pop in on saturday to catch up on paperwork or manage weekend events?
this isnt the exclusive realm on executives, this is what all staff do in the normal manner of things
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outrageous
who gave him the power to approve his own pay ? Surely the elected council can force him to take a pay cut no?
Because i thought the coalition was making it a legal requirement for all posts over 100,000 to get full council approval?
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what
really
i cant believe my eyes
surely hes not that stupid is he
that could cost him his job
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Quite right too – how else would Mr Ryley be able to afford things like the recent SOLACE Annual Dinner at The Savoy (£240 per head + accommodation and travel)?
Still, Mr Ryley is his union’s (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives) president.
According to today’s Sunday Times “the guests – 400 council executives and businessmen seeking contracts with their authorities – laughed as the speaker (Mr Ryley) reeled off Hollywood film titles such as The Year of Living Dangerously and Some Like it Hot to describe how they will cope with spending cuts.” I wonder if he mentioned Apocalypse Now?
It’s a shame he couldn’t have come along to yesterday’s march in Shrewsbury and shared the joke with the rest of us, but as he mentioned in his speech, quoted here:
http://www.solace.org.uk/news_articles.asp?archive=n&id=113
“As your president, my door is always open.”
This was a dig at another council Chief Executive who had the gall to suggest that champagne-swilling events like this are in rather poor taste at a time of massive and continuing cuts in services and jobs.
Still, I’m glad to hear that his £180,000 post still leaves him with the time and energy to be always available to his members.
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…and we are ALL in this together, aren’t we?
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this must be a joke ?
surely this is a strategic gamble to cause a big fuss and then when they climb down it makes it easier to cut the workers pay
i cant believe they would really try to get away with it otherwise i think they are cleverer than that and will just be playing PR games with the unions to make it easier to get the cuts through
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I think the idea of a “modest” pay cut for all as an alternative to redundancy is a good one whilst not underestimating the effect that will have on family budgets, particularly for the less well paid. And most Council staff are only modestly paid.
I also understand how senior staff work (often significant) hours in addition to those contracted thus a reduction in pay by say 2 hours from 37pw to 35 is not directly relevant. We need good staff at senior level if these changes are to be managed effectively in all our interests.
However, if all staff are taking an hours and pay reduction the reasoning for senior staff to be exempted from the policy seems a lame reason. It should be across the board to ensure equity. There may well be management restructuring savings but there will no doubt be restructuring throughout service staffing so again this does not justify differential processes.
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the officers are supposed to go ‘over the top’ with their men. How on earth can Ryley justify keeping all his whopping salary and expect everyone else to take a cut. He’s no better than a banker.
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If the managers took the same cut as us lower level staff were expected to take there would be a much greater saving. All staff could negotiate and go to 36 hours if higher level staff were forced to take this aswell but as always it’s one rule for them and one rule for us. This is outrageous
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Page 4 of the news section of the Sunday Times is headed:
‘Council jobs slashed as bosses live it up at Savoy’
It goes on to say Kim Ryley hosting the £240 a head black tie dinner, the £180,000 head of Shropshire Council and president of Solace, the society of chief executives, said in his address that councils were “the most efficient part of the public sector.”
5 days later this council said it would shut 9 schools, on top of forcasts of 1,300 job losses.
The next dinner is less than 2 weeks away when 100 Scottish council chiefs and guests hosted by Ronnie Hinds (Hinds I said, not Kray!)the £146,000 a year chief exec of Fife council, is the host. His council has announced it may make 3,000 staff redundant over the next 3 yrs has offered to pick up the £750 tab for reception drinks before the dinner.
Solace says the costs of the meals were met by companies seeking to win contracts.
Capita, which paid for the Savoy’s pre-dinner champagne, has since announced it has won an £80m contract to administer teachers’ pensions.
Ryley denies it is insensitive to attend such events.
” The Savoy dinner was the highlight of our calendar,” he said.
” It is an opportunity to speak with our business partners.”
Certainly in my case there would be no cost to the council because I covered my travel and accommodation expenses personally. I cannot talk for other colleagues.
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i read with horror in the times today that despite this mans vast wealth, he is organising a party for cheif executives in the poshest hotel in london in the middle of a period of cuts!
clearly this man has not read up on the basics of leadership and change management
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Yes I read that too, at the SAVOY hotel of all places! He lives on another planet clearly, he’s a walking PR disaster for the council, shame on him
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So reading this it is apparent that it is a case of one rule for the “Fat Cats” and one rule for the suckers.
So the criteria set by Mr Ryley is that there is no pay cut for these managers because they are not contracted to work 37 hours a week (albeit in Mr Ryleys case he may not work that many, as he seems to be staying in swanky hotels in London a lot, is it always on Shropshire Council Business!!! FOI time folks).
Given the above criteria then it is clear that if the rest of the staff are contracted to work 37 hrs (or shortly possibly 35) then that is what you should all do. when the clock strikes the appropriate time go home, you will not be paid overtime. Mr Ryley and the other Senior Managers will be there to mop up the additional work. After all they will be there won’t they.
If all of the stff did this lets see what happens when Mum is still in the bath at 5pm because she has had a funny turn and the care worker goes as per their contract.lets see what happens when the street cleaner goes home having failed to clean up that vomit on the high street, or cleared the used syringes in the park, finished fixing the toilet in your council house. Finished washing down after that RTA,
Interestingly the suckers are having their Holidays amended but the recent senior managers jobs being advertised were showing a much higher level of holiday allowance, yet another instance of the hypocrisy of Shropshire Councils Senior Managers.
One cannot help but think that the public perception of the Council is adversly swayed when you read all of these articles about senior staff, the suckers are in many cases earning much much less than this, interestingly has anyone ever seen a list of the pay bands and the number of employees within each band? might change a few peoples perceptions.
On another point, anyone checked the figures on savings Vs budget cutbacks? They don’t balance!!!!!!!!
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and now for my next PR disaster and susequent U turn, ladies and gentlemen, i give you….
shropshire council!
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this makes me so angry i could burst
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omg ! no way man that is well unfair init
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as the tories say WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!
(apparently!)
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what happend to lets shair the pain,and were all in this together!
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im furious with this disugsuting abuse of power, mr barrow, mr ryley, you are not colonel gadaffi, you are democatically accountable and we will extract a heavy price come the elections, u dare to take us on we are the voters, we pay your wages
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were all in this together hey, apart from the pigs at the top, just like in animal farm
same old tories
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The tories are bad but Labour and Lib Dumbs are no better.
All greedy pigs with their snouts in the trough!
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I’m afraid you’re right.
It’s the nature of politics. Whoever is in charge, this sort of thing would still happen. Putting Labour in charge (of the Government or the Council) would make no difference. Once they’re in power – for *that* is what is important to them – they’re all exactly the same. Self interest rules.
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omg
wtf
are these people on another planet
we’re in a recession, they are cutting off grants to charities to save like £10,000 here and there, getting rid of all this “top talent” would be a much better idea imo
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#15 Matt for heaven’s sake stop whining about the sculpture. At least we have got something in return, like it,love it or hate it.
Much more of our money was spent fighting the unitary council.
£100,00 for a referendum
£200,000 on a judicial review which we lost.
£250,000 golden handshake to the then leaving chief Exec who decided (on our behalf) that we should fight it in the first place.
Those panicking local councillors who went along with this expensive venture and didn’t lose their seats in the unitary council then awarded themselves a huge rise in their allowances. There have been quite a few new cars on the road as a result since!
Ther has to be more accountability and transparency and that includes councillors.
I don’t see why any councillor should use taxpayers money for self interest, hence my drawing attention to the railway museum which has somehow avoided being cut despite hardly being likely to draw anything but a small amount of interest from a minority group of enthusiasts.
Most of us are sick of trains, spending several hours a day on them feeling like sardines!
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but eva people were against unitary, its been an expensive disaster and people were right to oppose it, the money was well spent because everything had to be done to stop the unitary band wagon which as predicted is not fracturing back into local rule
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I think Unitary was a disaster eva, its not saved money, its just increased top pay as this shows, the old district councils were much lighter on their feet and more efficient all round so losing them has created a massive bloated inefficient organisation
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I worked breifly for SCC on a temporary contract in 2006/7, I can assure your readers than I never worked the 37 contracted hours but on average about 45, so an entire days extra work voluntarily each week. I am not complaining, its better than the bank I worked for before where you were just expected to work 60 hour weeks, but the point I’m making is that all staff (I was a lowly clerk on £15,674 p.a) all staff I saw worked more than 37 hours, so by upsetting them all you are only going to loose that “big society” element of generosity which all public sector workers put in as volunteers each week, so dropping from doing 45 to 35 hours all of a sudden is a massive drop in productivity for staff, ten hours less each week from over 6,000 staff, thats a massive massive drop off in hours, which would seriously reduce the level of service we get as taxpayers
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Well said Sharon.
What is not mentioned though are the veiled threats to front line managers that if the service fails as a result of these cutbacks then it will be viewed as a matter of poor performance of managers with the consequential disciplinary action. Another way of getting rid of people.
I am not averse to change in fact I think change is a good thing if properley managed. But has anyone come to the coal face to check what coiuld be changed their to save money? No. what they have done is create some “Change Champions” who they fail to consult with in advance of decisions being made and who sometimes get their info from staff!! Oh yes they did have some “Table Talk Sessions” but those were fundamentaly a dictate “If you don’t like the bus journey don’t get on the bus”.
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To be honest, I wonder if we’re directing our fire at the wrong people. It’s the COUNCILLORS who should be getting the blame, not the senior officers. THEY are allowing this, and will continue to do so.
It seems clear that neither senior officers or councillors are actually losing out very much, while services for the disabled gets cut by millions and hundreds of other people face losing their jobs (with a consequent knock-on effect on the economy in the area).
It would probably be a good idea to keep track of which councillors support all these moves (nearly all of them, one supposes), so they can be voted out at the earliest opportunity.
Nothing personal against the postholders, but I think it would be a good idea to know the job titles of the 60 (sixty!!!) ‘senior managers’ mentioned. The Council probably wouldn’t reveal this willingly, so it would take a Freedom of Information request (it’s OUR MONEY after all…), but I wonder how many of those senior managers are in the sort of ‘non-jobs’ this Government said they were going to get rid of? I doubt we’d miss any of them – but you can bet they’ll hang on in their posts until the very last gasp.
And I wonder how long it took the PR people to come up with the story to justify all this?! They are some more who can be added to the ‘expendable’ list.
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NO WAY! they cant be so stupid as to think they will get away with this will they? there will be a riot in shirehall
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who d they think they are ?
bankers?
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absolutely disgraceful to even propose a cut which is only targeted on one section of the workforce or another – it reaks of poor leadership, how can you inspire your troops if you dont even join in the battle ?
Somebody needs to reread their management textbooks
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Some people were against the unitary scary scary, mainly those who knew they would lose out. The rest of us Shropshire taxpayers were paid to fight somthing we were never going to win, whilst other councils looked on, with amusement probably.
The unitary councils were the first step to try and reduce costs but it was obviously not enough.
My other half subsequently has found it much easier to deal with one council rather than 5 all with different ways of working.
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i cant believe they think this would ever be socially / morally or politically acceptable
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STOP MOANING AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT……
The people in power know you won’t do a thing about it except send pointless E Mails to the local paper.
Then in a week or two it will all be forgotten.
ALL YOU DO IS MOAN AND GROAN.
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Very true!
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Nothing more to say , but wanted to add to the list.
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Perhaps these generously paid managers should voluntarily give up 5% of their salary, just to show those who are at the sharp end of pay freezes and cuts that they are aware of whats happenening around them
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#74 ONLY 5% phil? The same amount as the councillors generously offered you mean, despite awarding themselves 100% increase after we went unitary?
# 72 What do you do when you have written to the council and they do not reply?
I was listening to the radio lunchtime English Exile and a girl of 20 yrs of age, in Libya was in angst about her two brothers being out there protesting and fighting for freedom. It was quite chilling to hear her worrying about them not having much money left on their mobile phones and her fear of losing contact and so not knowing if they were ok. It all sounds so ordinary yet obviously not ordinary.
She spoke about some of the terrible things happening to folk.
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Get off your backside and go and see your councillor, and tell him to his face.
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Phil I agree with you, but in this wonderous state of utopia, given that they are increasing their workload (to cover for the drop in staffing numbers) do you honestly think the brothers at union hq would allow such a move if the same happened to their members?
Dial 0898 ***3 to vote NO
or
Dial 0898 ***7 to vote NO
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if kim ryley is cutting 20% off the budget, and staff numbers are decreasing, isnt he technically devaluing his own post by reducing the number of staff he manages and the like, surely if I manage 5 staff and get paid £50k, if i went down to managing 3 staff i’d expect a pay cut in line with my reduced responsibility,
if kim ryley is in control of less budget, he should get less pay, fairs fair
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I suggest that all contributors who feel strongly about this contact their local councillor by email, ask if they condone the comments made by Mr. Ryely, and support the fact that the “pain” is to be felt only by the lowest paid, and the consumers of council services.
If they do not support Ryley’s position, ask what they intend to do about it.
Email addresses for councillors may be found on the council website here,
http://shropsdemserv.web.coop/CommitteeServices/ShropshireCouncillors
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where i work u’d get a slap for that, its all for one and one for all, we’re a team and thats the way it should be
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this is a wind up right? you must be joking me?
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If my boss tried that on with me, i would tell him exactly where to put it, i dont think he’d dare actually as he’s only 5 foot and i reckon he knows how i’d react!
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KIM RYLEY = PR DISASTER
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is this just a cut and paste job or are the majority of shropshire people really thinking what im thinking? Cuts have to be made to the council, not just because of the financial crisis caused by gordon brown and his chums in the city but because its the right thing to do, to get public sector workers to do more for less and to get more private contractors getting a slice of some of these massive public projects, which all our pension funds would welcome, we need more big private employers in shropshire, so what better than to privatise a major function like housing or schools, look im all in favour of this BUT… i must add we all need to do it together, we are british, this strikes at our very sense of right and wrong, its not just, its not British, its unpatriotic and imorale and its just not British
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Its well known that most people in Shropshire work more than their contracted hours. How on earth the senior management could have the cheek to propose that this is a unique feature of their job its outrageous. What it shows is that they dont understand the services they run. It shows lack of leadership, lack of empathy, lack of respect and lack of understanding about how their front facing publically accessible 24/7 services actually operate. This lack of operational experience suggests they are out of touch with actual street cleansing, bin collection, libraries, schools and leisure centres which dont operate 9 to 5 and require people to work anti social hours all of the time.
All it shows is frankly they are not cut out for their jobs due to the above factors.
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LOL pull the other one its got bells on it
Methinks some strikes might be coming…
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i have never been so angered by such a proposed injustice in a long time, this just offends my basic sense of what is right and what is wrong, it cannot be allowed
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to be fair to the bosses, 5% of a big salary is alot of cash to lose, whereas for the plebs 5% is only a grand, so proportionally its only fair really,what would be better would be a flat rate cut, so everyone loses a fixed amount of cash, say £3,000 each, that would be fairer on full time senior staff who would otherwise lose far more
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how would losing £3,000 a year be fair to ANYONE d?
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Cannot agree with you d – £3k per year to someone on £15k per year is a huge loss yet a 5% paycut to someone on £100k per year (£5k loss)is a drop in the ocean
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it is not a suprise, you have a tory government and a tory council and youre not going to get anything other than massive hikes in executive pay, cuts to benefits and workers rights and bumper profits and low corporation tax for state sponsored enterprises who take all their profits out of the country so that there is almost no benefit to real people in the UK at all
its the same old tories, the nasty party, looking to hurt peoples take home pay as much as they possibly can so that they and their party funders can get richer
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No question now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
- George Orwell, Animal Farm, Ch. 10
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another relevant one…
“No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?”
- George Orwell, Animal Farm, Ch. 5
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yes and “SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHER ANIMALS” springs to mind!
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unbeleivable unaudacity
i bet he’s watching his back in shirehall now
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Haha! If anyone ever saw him around The Shirehall it would be a miracle!
Pay freezes / reduced pay / no pay for first 3 days sickness / reduced redundancy payouts / reduced travel allowances / abolishing subsistance payment / overtime / flexi-time / instigating a system of annualised hours that will mean staff in effect being forced to work shifts (particularly unhelpful to the large proportion of working mums who need flexibility to do the school runs) … congratulations Mr Ryley, you’re taking this Council back to the dark ages! I do hope you can sleep at night?
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my god the rage is building in me just reading this, if i actually worked there i think i would go mental – its just a red rag to a bull clearly designed to provoke a strike
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if i was raising a family on 15 thousand pounds a year and the boss cut by pay by 5% i would just cry, then i’d go mental and smash the place up i think or something i dont know but its absolutely disgusting behaviour arguable amounts to construcitve dismissal to do that to staff i think
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Don’t just moan – Do something about it!
First – Stop voting for the ‘old gang’ Lib/Lab/Con – They’re all the same and all as bad as each other
Second – Put yourself forward as a candidate in the next elections. Stand as an idependent and give other voters a choice other than the same old self-serving greedy pigs.
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Yes, but as we saw with the election of Dr Richard Taylor who stood on the Kidderminster Hospital ticket, he was nothing but a wallflower and when his inability to have any effect on the main parties was realised it was bye,bye, thanks for everything….
Let’s have an honest answer here, if Lib/Cons said we’re going to give everybody a £5k payrise and 50 days leave a year regardless of the economic situation would you vote for them?
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no way!
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owch that is harsh on the real front line workers isnt it ? 5%, most private companies went for a pay freeze in the recession but actually cutting pay, no way, only Ireland did that, and we’re no where near as bad as Ireland. Wouldnt it be better to reduce overheads and sell of surplus land and buildings ?
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he looks pretty pleased with himself , payed more than the PM yet manages just 0.01% of the budget, raking it in at public expense, looks like a banker, acts like a banker, sounds like a RIght BANKER to me!!!!
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i like the animal farm quotes – seems these are more like cats than pigs though – to good for everyone else – they are just posing and slurping the cream
some fat cats are more equal than othr
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i would like to see him donate some of that fat pay packet to the local charities like cab who’s funding he has cut in the name of the so called big society
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This is going to be unpopular, but here goes…
The current recession started in 2008 when the causes of our difficulties were very apparent. We elected the councillors in 2009. We, the people of Shropshire, elected the current administration at Shropshire Council and it employs officers to manage it.
Kim Ryley is an employee of Shropshire Council. I am sure that one of your correspondents could make a case for employing someone who could only command a salary of, say, £100,000. In a market economy it tends to be that people with greater-than-average ability can command a greater-than-average salary. I would rather have someone able manage our £628m budget and our thousands of employees rather than an unproven individual selected simply because he or she couldn’t get a higher-paid job elsewhere.
If you don’t like it, elect councillors who will do your bidding in the 2013 elections.
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David – are you a simpleton or Kym Ryley in disguise?
The market economy has no bearing on public service, there are no shareholders to account to and a profit is not required. This is why the excuses given about pay parity for public/private sector are nothing but a smoke screen to try to hide behind.
Kym Ryley is in charge of a department with a reducing budget, the workforce is being reduced how can he justify his salary? you have to accept that Shropshire is smaller than the UK, it has a smaller budget so how can Kym Ryler justify a salary greater than that paid to The Prime Minister?
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Salopian,
Only others can judge if I’m a simpleton, but I don’t consider myself one. I can assure you that I am not Kim Ryley in disguise.
You’ll know that Shropshire Council’s senior managers, Kim Ryley included, have offered (and Shropshire Council has accepted their offer) to reduce their salary by 5% today with the money going into a fund for disadvantaged young people in the county.
The Prime Minister and his administration formulate policy having been invited by HM The Queen to form a government. Their policy is executed by public servants.
Shropshire Council’s administration is formed having been elected by Shropshire electors. Their policy is executed by public servants, e.g. Kim Ryley and SC’s employees.
The Prime Minister of this country over many decades has never been paid a salary or allowance that is greater than the highest earners in contemporary society.
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who do they think they are ? royalty?
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It doesn’t wash David.
The job is in the main a glorified PR role.
This kind of club of Chief Executives is part of their networking.
In their dog eat dog world, to get and hold on to these posts, our Chief Executive when we were SABC misjudged the support he would garner to fight the government of theat time over the unitary option and in the end our council was left picking up the tab.
Did the decision maker suffer a financial loss. No he had a golden handshake and then got a job with another council!
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Eva,
The people who make the policies are the councillors we elect. Officers execute those polcies. If SABC councillors had voted not to fight against the unitary status the Chief Executive would not have pursued that course.
Having said that, you have a fair point about golden handshakes etc. You only have to read “Rotten Boroughs” in Private Eye http://www.private-eye.co.uk/sections.php?section_link=rotten_boroughs& to get a flavour of some of the nonsense that goes on regarding enhanced severance packages, both before and at retirement.
But annual salary for doing the job? I stand by my statement.
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David,the reason that councillors voted for the fight was partly influenced by self interests for some who knew the reduced numbers of councillors might affect them and the costs that were anticipated which turned out so be so completely wrong.
That is the difference between private and public sector.
If you make errors of judgement in the private sector you have to answer for them personally or to shareholders. In the public sector you are paid whatever by the public purse and just move on.
I would say that a GP with years and years of training merits a better salary than a networking paper pusher who is good at spending other people’s money.
Do we get a better service from councillors now they receive the equivilent of an income rather than merely status and a pride of public duty?
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Eva,
I have worked in the private sector most of my life and I’m well aware of the consideration one has to give to decisions which may affect customers, employees and shareholders alike.
If councillors were indeed influenced by personal considerations rather than public duty that is a disgrace. I hope that they can live with their consciences.
In employment terms people in the public sector should be treated in the same way as those in the private sector. Their pay and benefits including pension are now entirely comparable.
I’m not going to get into a debate here that tries to rank the pay of GPs with “years and years of training” with experienced local government employees or, for that matter, experienced businessmen. There are some that are successful and there are some that are not.
Councillors’ basic annual allowances are a little under £12,000 after the Leader’s pledge to trim the recommendation of the Independent Remuneration Panel by 5%. My view is that it is nigh on impossible to do a full-time job and carry out a Shropshire Councillor’s duties effectively (which is not to say that I believe they are all effective councillors). It is for Shropshire electors can judge whether that represents good value for money – and then vote accordingly.
Here is the IRP report: http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/committee.nsf/0/5217514D149A5693802577FC004831B9/$file/7%20Independent%20Remuneration%20Panel.pdf
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I work for Shropshire Council upto 50 hours a week as a middle manager and currently get paid for 37. I have no issue in taking a pay cut in order to protect services and jobs, but am outraged why Senior Officers are not expected to do the same. Mr Ryley you have no scruples and are a disgrace
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Would the public be interested to know the current level of Consultants that Mr Ryley has enagaged to deliver costs savings. These are the same Consultants that he used in Hull where the aspirations of savings have never been acheived. It appears that there is a cosy and unaccountable process that needs to be challenged.
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Someone needs to shine the spotlight on Common Purpose. Youtube it…
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Oldbeastie, I looked at the vid you suggested on Youtube. No offence meant to you, but it’s just a vid of a standard paranoid conspiracy. The only real conspiracy going on is the conscious, socially engineered shift from an ethos of public service; the ‘good of all’ principle, to treating us as clients, a source of profit for private companies.
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Penna are just one of the consultants. They did personality tests for the first 20 managers appointed. This cost £80,000 between June and Dec 2010. http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/opendata.nsf/open/808B6994597E13CE802577BC005AD654
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“Would the public be interested to know the current level of Consultants that Mr Ryley has enagaged to deliver costs savings. These are the same Consultants that he used in Hull where the aspirations of savings have never been acheived. It appears that there is a cosy and unaccountable process that needs to be challenged.”
Anyone on that amount of money should be able to run a business without consultants to do the work for them or take a pay cut, if they aren’t capable of doing the job themselves.
I run my own business and employ people to do the jobs that they are qualified for, we don’t need to employ consultants because we are paid for the job, accordingly to what we know and do…that’s the difference between public and private employees, folks.
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Sorry but that is rubbish.
By your logic, and business model, the Chief Exec should be a qualified Engineer, Barrister, Doctor, I could go on. And for all that you are suggesting he wouldn’t be worth £180k?
When you bought or leased your business premises did you do the legal searches yourself? Asbestos survey? Dispose of your own commerical waste? Sign off your end of year balance sheet? Or did you hire in specialists to do it for you.
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Firstly, Julian, I’m not being paid £180K from public money.
Secondly I don’t need to employ “consultants” to tell me how to run a business,if he can’t run a business he shouldn’t be paid that money. The council should have enough of their own “in house staff” to run the council.
A friend of mine works at a council down south, they employ consulltants to tell the highways deptmartment what materials to use, when the material suppliers have already supplied the specification to do the job, why pay someone twice to do one job? I don’t.
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But, Julian, the council already employs engineers, nursing staff and has a legal department, so why pay the chief Exedc as though he is doing these jobs himself, what’s your point exactly?
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I worked for Shropshire Council until recently and saw the huge waste of tax payers money from the inside. If tax payers saw the incompetence of the senior management, the closing of ranks when questioned, the inefficiency, lack of professionalism, their ‘I’m alright Jack’ mentality, they’d be disgusted. But ultimately it’s the responsibility of ‘We the People’, to do something about this greed driven culture, if we don’t, who ultimately do we have to blame?
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The life of Ryley!
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When you are running a ship as diverse as a council, the NHS or a government for example then it is necessary to use ‘experts and consultants’ but the problem with jobs funded by the taxpayer is that it can become a nice lucrative networking opportunity.
This government quickly started employing consultants having many cronies looking for plump contracts no doubt but whether they are the right or best choice for the job is another matter.
You can see how Mr Ryley says that the job of the councillors is more onerous since we went unitary but quite how he qualifies that when amalgamating several councils was done to simplify the situation and has done so. By making that statement however the huge increase in councillor allowances is justified, the councillors are happy and are less likely to question his decisions or his colleagues.
The statement that the income of councillors is needed to attract people to the supposed vocation is laughable when you see how many of our councillors have been in posts 15yrs+ and it doesn’t take into account the political aspects of being a councillor to get voted in in the first place.
Now some LibDems are demanding even more pay and that the income is comparable to other council employees, it is surely adding just another layer of bureaucracy to the council?
I do agree with roadrunner that it is all about accountability and transparancy which we do not get despite as taxpayers funding the services.
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In this instance and the current banking/financial ‘services’ debacle, we are subject to rhetoric from both sides of the argument, both believing in their opinions, their justifications. It’s very easy to measure cause and effect; who is right. Just look at our society, who gains, who loses? The greedy rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In Kim’s case, he, the rich is not taking a cut, being made poorer, who is? Yep, you got it!
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alright for some
oh how the other half live :)
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If this is how our council CEO belives he can make the desired budget cutbacks as required by national government, by making sure his and other senior bosses wages escape any pay cuts BUT reduce front line services by making people in those job’s redundant or to make sure frontline staff take a 5% pay cut, them i’m afraid it’s time this man was booted out of the council. A vote of ‘no confidence’ wont work because he’s protected the pay of those who would have otherwise voted ‘no’. There must be something in the policy handbook that will allow the tax payer to challange the CEO’s position and get him out?
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