By New Worker correspondent
A group of public
servants have won inflation-busting pay rises. These are councillors in the
London Borough of Camden where they voted themselves a considerable, if
unevenly distributed, increase.
The council leader will get an increase
in her allowance from £29,000 to £40,000, whilst cabinet members will get a 54
per cent rise from £16,275 to £25,000. Committee chairs will get a 66 per cent
to £9,000 from a piddling £5,500.
Humble backbench councillors will only
get an extra £451 per year more, taking them above £10,000 per year for the
first time.
The vote for the rise was 27–5. The five who voted against were all
Tories who might have been upset at missing out because they are not in power.
Twenty-two other councillors did not take part; they were mostly Labour
councillors keen to maintain their lefty street cred. Instead of a formal
walkout some headed to the toilet or attended to urgent business in their
offices. If one was a cynic one might think that those opposing the rise made
sure that their numbers were not large enough to ensure that the measure was
actually defeated, or that they were motivated by the distribution of the rise that
went almost entirely to ruling senior figures.
One of the ruling Labour councillors,
the Cabinet Officer, let the cat out of the bag when he publicly boasted of his
excitement about booking a holiday in Brazil as soon as the rise was suggested
in a council committee.
The Tories said the budget for
allowances should not increase but that underspends in the finances should be
“shared equally” across all councillors.
