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PSA concerned about widening pay gap in public service

28/01/2010 2:10:28 p.m.

The Public Service Association is concerned about the growing gap between pay for public service chief executives and the staff they employ.

Labour Party leader Phil Goff has said no public service chief executive should be paid more than the Prime Minister’s base salary of $393,000 a year in a state of the nation speech in Hamilton this afternoon.

“Currently 14 public service chief executives are on pay bands higher than the Prime Minister’s salary, including the head of the Prime Minister’s department,” says PSA national secretary Brenda Pilott.

“That just doesn’t seem right.”

“But our chief concern is not the gap between the PM’s salary and these chief executives. It’s the ever widening pay gap between the chief executives and their staff.”

“We recognise public service chief executives have difficult and demanding jobs but so do their staff.” says Brenda Pilott.

“Chief executives are well rewarded for the work they do, their staff should also be fairly paid for providing services the public relies on.”

“It’s simply not fair for chief executives earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, who’ve had pay rises, to tell their staff on far lower salaries that they can’t have a pay rise.”

“The Ministry of Justice is a prime example. The Ministry’s chief executive is paid more than half a million dollars a year and the salary band for the job was increased by more than 6% in the year to June 30, 2009.”

“Where’s the justice in the head of the Ministry of Justice earning more than half a million dollars a year while workers who run our courts are paid as little as $29,500.”

“And that gap between workers running our justice system and their employer is widening because the workers are being denied a fair pay increase.”

Media contact Nick Hirst 027 600-5498.PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott 027 430-6016

 

Public Service Association