Employment Committee recommend massive pay rise for Chief Executive

Jim Taylor

The Employment Committee of Rochdale Council has recommended that the Chief Executive of Rochdale Council be given a pay rise with a potential salary of £175,000 in a meeting this afternoon (Thursday 28 November).

The committee have given their recommendations to the Overview and Scrutiny, meeting this evening, outlining a pay range option with progression based on "performance". Mr Taylor will therefore be begin with a salary of £145,000 from January 1 2014 and could potentially earn up to £175,000 over the coming years.

This step comes after the decision was made to postpone the discussion of the pay rises at the last council meeting in October.

If the recommendations are agreed by full council in a meeting scheduled to take place in December, Jim Taylor could be on a progressive scale which looks like this: £145,000, £152,500, £160,000, £167,500 and finally £175,000.

Councillor Peter Rush was the only member of the committee not to agree the recommendation.

Employment Committee Members Present

• Councillor Daalat Ali (Labour)
• Councillor Jacqueline Beswick (Labour)
• Councillor Robert Clegg (Conservative)
• Councillor Terry Linden (Labour)
• Councillor Linda Robinson (Labour)
• Councillor Peter Rush (Lib Dem)
• Councillor June West (Labour)

Pay rises for the director posts were also discussed at the meeting. The committee recommended that the Deputy Chief Executive, the Director of Finance and the Director of Economy and Environment be moved up to a salary of £91,464 from 1 January 2014 with a six point scale of progression.

This was agreed by all members of the committee.

The recommendations will now be heard at the Overview and Scrutiny meeting taking place this evening (Thursday 28 November). A final decision will then be made at the full council meeting on Wednesday 11 December.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/83117/a-remarkable-week-even-for-rochdale