Attentive readers of this blog will be familiar with the case of John Foster who was given a pay off from Wakefield Council of over half a million pounds and then signed up to be the Chief Executive at Islington on £210,000 a year. The Daily Mail this morning points out this means he will have been paid over £1 million in three years.
Of his experience at Wakefield Council he says:
‘I happened to have been a very successful chief executive but the council leader was seeking to terminate my employment.
‘I had employment rights like every other employee and the council had to negotiate with me within employment law.’
Wakefield is (for the moment) a Labour Council with an exceptionally relaxed attitude to spending other people's money. Foster's face doesn't fit? Pay him half a million to go away. Incidentally local Labour MPs include Ed Balls who is very keen on class war attacks on the rich Tories.
I agree with Mark Wallace : If a CEO is doing a bad job – which would include being obstructive to the policies of the elected councillors – then the CEO should be sacked. If the CEO is carrying out their job professionally, but the Council leader simply doesn't like them, then splashing out half a million pounds to get a new CEO is the most appalling indulgence. Either way pay outs on that scale are wrong.