EXCLUSIVE | NI Assembly top brass get up to 15% pay rises while public sector gets nothing

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ni-assembly-top-brass-get-up-to-15-pay-rises-while-public-sector-gets-nothing/a667714302.html

#Hefty increases for those already at the top of the pay tree has prompted disquiet among some staff who just received 4% increases

Sam McBride
Today at 07:05

Senior figures at the Northern Ireland Assembly have received pay increases of up to 15%, it can be revealed — despite the Assembly not having functioned for almost two years.

The Assembly’s directors — senior staff in charge of departments — got a 15% increase on last year’s salary, while its chief executive, Lesley Hogg, received an 11.8% increase.

Meanwhile, many Assembly staff have seen their pay rise by just 4%, leading to disgruntlement within Parliament Buildings.

The news emerges as much of the public sector has been striking because it has received no pay rise whatsoever for the last 18 months, something which in real terms means those individuals have been taking a hefty pay cut as inflation has soared.

The Assembly confirmed the figures to the Belfast Telegraph after an insider contacted this newspaper to express dismay at what was happening.

The Assembly — which did not attempt to hide the figures when we asked for them — stressed that there had been two separate processes which had seen many staff get extra cash.

The first involved a review of the salaries for Assembly roles which resulted in hefty increases for certain roles — including the most senior figures.

The second came from a standard annual pay review which saw a 4% increase for all staff – including those who had already received substantial increases through the salary review.

One MLA said it was “utterly out of touch” for so much extra money to go to those at the top of the Assembly at a time when it isn’t sitting and when other staff were receiving far less. “What sort of a message does that send out?” the MLA asked.

Although the Assembly is an important body, it is small in public sector terms with just over 300 staff.

When asked about the pay increases, the Assembly said in a statement: “An independent pay benchmarking review was carried out by Hays Consulting as part of an exercise to ensure that the Assembly Commission pays staff fairly and equitably for the work they perform and has appropriate salary scales to attract and retain high calibre staff to support the work of the Assembly.

“This exercise was requested during the 2017 pay claim in discussions with Trade Union Side to ensure that staff were treated comparably to staff in analogous organisations.

“Trade Union Side was consulted on the content of the independent Pay Benchmarking Review and they considered it provided clear and robust analysis regarding its findings and recommendations. The Assembly Commission considered the report at its meeting on 21 June 2023 and approved the report and its recommendations.”

The minutes of that meeting of the commission — the cross-party body of MLAs who oversee the staff running Parliament Buildings — show that the Assembly’s Director of Corporate Services, Steven Baxter, told those present that “the recommendation from officials was to defer making a proposed pay offer until later in the year, in view of budget constraints facing the Assembly Commission at this time”.

The commission agreed to accept that proposal to delay offering a pay increase to all staff.

The same meeting was given details of the ‘grading and benchmarking review’. The minutes show that the item was discussed in closed session, with no details of what was said or agreed. All the minutes state is that Speaker Alex Maskey “asked all officials with the exception of the clerk/chief executive, Mrs Hogg as accounting officer and the head of human resources, Ms McDonnell to leave the meeting”.

The Assembly told the Belfast Telegraph that the 4% increase was “completely separate” from the other pay increases.

It said that Ms Hogg received a 7.5% pay increase from the benchmarking exercise. When added to the 4%, she has seen her salary rise by 11.8% — from £148,839 to £166,400 in the course of a year.

Directors received a 10.54% pay increase from the benchmarking exercise. Combined with the extra 4%, that means they have seen their pay go up by 14.96% in a year — from £99,508 to £114,400.

The Assembly also operates a very generous pension scheme.

Ms Hogg took over as chief executive in June 2016, coming from the US corporation AES which at that point owned Kilroot and Ballylumford power stations. According to last year’s annual accounts, after just seven years at the Assembly her pension pot has risen to £439,000.

Last year’s accounts show that Richard Stewart, the director of corporate services, had a pension pot of £824,000, Gareth McGrath, the director of parliamentary services, had a pension pot of £632,000, and Tara Caul, the director of legal, governance and research services had a pension worth £359,000.

According to the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency’s Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings which was published two months ago, show that from April 2022 to April 2023 public sector pay in Northern Ireland increased just 0.1%. By stark contrast, private sector pay went up 9.3% in the same period.

The research showed that in that 12-month period real earnings in the public sector fell by 7.2%, in contrast to an increase of 1.4% in the private sector, and that over the last two decades real earnings in the public sector showed no growth, compared to a growth of 13% in real earnings in the private sector since 2003.

Although the Assembly has hardly sat in almost two years, the building is still used by political parties, who have offices there, and is also where most Assembly staff continue to be based.

However, for some specialised staff, such as the Hansard reporters who transcribe debates, the absence of functioning devolution means they effectively cannot do their jobs.

by columboscoat