Council staff enjoy overtime bonanza

SOME employees at Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County
Council are being paid up to 100 per cent in excess of their basic salaries in
overtime, Southside People can reveal.

The details, which show how some council staff are
earning tens of thousands of euros in overtime, has prompted calls for a review
of spending on public servants’ pay at the local authority.

They were released to Cllr Gerry Horkan (FF) on foot
of a question he asked management and show how one council employee earned just
over 100 per cent of their basic salary in overtime in 2011.

The figures list the top 10 overtime earners at the
local authority last year, and indicate that the take home annual pay of
several employees was boosted by between 60 and 90 per cent when their overtime
payments are taken into account.

This time last year, Cllr Horkan obtained similar
information regarding overtime payments at the council and called for a review
of the practice.

Within the top 10 overtime payments at the council in
2011, one employee earned a basic salary of

?¬43,610 but their total gross
earnings increased to

?¬89,070 after an overtime payment of

?¬45,460.

The second highest overtime earner at the local
authority last year was paid a basic salary of

?¬44,185 but ended up earning

?¬83,112
in total after overtime of

?¬38,927 was factored into their total pay.

The third highest overtime payment by the council last
year was made to one employee who was paid a salary of

?¬51,407 and who earned

?¬37,158
in overtime, bringing the employee’s total gross pay to

?¬88,565.

The fourth highest paid employee in terms of overtime
pay received

?¬26,583, which was close to 90 per cent of their normal salary of

?¬30,813, bringing their total income for the year to

?¬57,396.

As part of a bid to bring down payroll costs by July
last year, the council reduced its staffing levels by 397 members to 1,813,
which represents a reduction of about 21 per cent on 2010.

Cllr Horkan said that paying council employees
overtime payments in excess of their basic salary was

“not justified

?.

“In any climate this level of overtime payment
wouldn’t be justified but it is particularly the case now when 450,000 people
are in some sort of unemployment assistance,

? he said.

“The top overtime earner
on this list is earning almost as much as a director of services.

?

Cllr Horkan believes the practice costs taxpayers more
money than if the council employed additional staff on basic salaries to do the
same work.

A spokesperson for the council said it had achieved a
24 per cent overall cost reduction in overtime payments in the four-year period
between the beginning of 2008 and the end of 2011.

“That reduction would possibly have been even greater
had we not experienced the adverse weather conditions of the last two winters,
when there was a perfectly justifiable expectation from the public that
resources would be made available to deal with the roads and water crises,

? the
spokesperson said.