Fury over £500 pandemic 'thank you' payments to high paid staff

A trade union has blasted more than £3 million of thank-you payments given to some of the highest-paid council staff.

Nicola Sturgeon announced in 2020 that all health and social care staff would receive £500 in recognition of their “extraordinary” work during the pandemic.

A freedom of information request by the GMB found that 5,890 of the 38,609 recipients employed by councils were on pay grades stretching above £40,000.

GMB organiser Keir Greenaway described the payment to top earners as “a bonus to well-paid staff who weren’t on the frontline of the pandemic response”.

The breakdown found that 15% of payments went to council staff on £40,000 or more, including 67 payments to the most senior managers, heads of service and directors with chief officer grades.

Greenaway said: “Our members are furious.

“These payments were meant to be an acknowledgement for those putting their lives on the line during the pandemic.

“Instead, millions of pounds of public money has been used to give a bonus to well-paid staff who weren’t on the frontline of the pandemic response.

“We had very senior managers, often working from home, getting thank-you payments whilst our members were out risking everything, struggling with poor or non-existent PPE to keep the country moving.

“It’s time the Scottish Government fund the key workers they appear to have forgotten about: refuse collectors, cleaners, school staff, rather than was money feathering the nests of the top brass.”

Of the 28 out of 32 councils who responded to the FoI, Perth and Kinross had the highest proportion of thank-you payments awarded to staff potentially earning more than £40,000, with 26.7% of eligible workers getting the bonus.

It was followed by Clackmannanshire (26.%), East Renfrewshire (25.4%), Angus (24.8%), South Lanarkshire (22.9%), and West Lothian (22.8%).

A spokesman for Cosla, the local authority umbrella group, said: “Councils were simply the delivery vehicle for this.

“It was a Scottish Government policy that they were solely responsible for.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The £500 thank you payment was for NHS and adult social care staff, and almost 400,000 people were eligible.

“We are hugely grateful to the efforts of the many key workers in different sectors across Scotland as they rose to the challenge of responding to the pandemic.

“The payment was made to NHS and social care staff in recognition of their efforts on the front line during the pandemic.”

To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.