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Public sector executives should have 10 per cent of their pay withheld until they meet performance targets at the end of each year, according to a government commissioned report published today.
The scheme proposed by economist Will Hutton's Fair Pay Review would affect around 2,000 of the highest paid workers in the public sector.
But the review has ruled out the idea of capping the salaries of senior staff who earn more than 20 times the lowest paid worker in their organisation as it would be unworkable and only affect a very small number of people.
"The public has the right to know that pay is deserved, fair, under control and designed to drive improving public sector performance, and that there are no rewards for failure," said Hutton.
Instead of a salary cap Hutton said that public bodies should publish details of their executives pay compared to the average earnings of their entire workforce.
He also said that bonuses should not be paid unless executives received the part of their pay that had been held back as their performance was assessed - to avoid them ignoring the perforation criteria and making up the losses in bonuses.
Article Comments
The idea that basic pay should be 'at risk' or that there should be 'productivity sharing deals' do not seem practical or desirable in the current environment of massive public sector cuts.
The main disappointment is that Mr Hutton has only focused on one end of the pay gap- he could have recommended steps to close the high/low pay disparity through improvements for the low paid. With hundreds of thousands of part-time female public service workers at or just above the minimum wage this is an economically disadvantaged group that Hutton should have given some hope to.
Brian Strutton, national secretary for public services, GMB
15th Mar 2011 at 11:53 am
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