Staff vouchers are slammed as boss gets £130k payout

Published on Tuesday 6 March 2007 11:52

STAFF at East Lothian Council have been given just £200 in store vouchers for serving the same length of time as their controversial chief executive who is picking up £130,000.

Six workers at East Lothian Council with more than 40 years service were each given the vouchers for John Lewis, it was reported today.

A further 167 employees at the council with more than 30 years service were given 100 vouchers and 458 with more than 20 years at the authority got 50 tokens.

Mr Lindsay, who is taking redundancy pay on top of a pension of more than 50,000-a-year and a lump sum of more than 150,000, reportedly made a speech at a ceremony for staff in Haddington.

A council spokesman insisted it was not fair to compare the staff awards to Mr Lindsay's package.

"There is no valid comparison to be made between these awards and a redundancy/early retirement payment to a council employee, whatever level they work at," he said

But politicians and unions have condemned the apparent different way the senior official and his staff were treated.

SNP Lothians MSP Kenny MacAskill said: "This adds insult to injury and it's clear that something is far wrong in East Lothian Council.

"Years of dedicated service in local government should be recognised.

"It's unacceptable that there are riches for the chief executive but only tokens for the staff."

A spokesman for the public service union Unison said the move was likely to anger staff.

"Other local government staff are rarely in a position to benefit to this extent and it is completely understandable that the comparison between this purported payout and the vouchers given to other long-serving staff invited anger and resentment."