AS WIRRAL Council moves to raise the salary of its chief executive by £40,000 a year, it’s emerged more than 150 town hall managers are facing a hefty pay cut.

The anomaly has sparked an accusation of "double standards" being operated by the administration.

The authority is carrying out a major “remodelling” of staffing structures and salary scales to reduce spending. A report to next week’s Policy Council meeting says this will lead to lower incomes for 157 middle managers.

It warns: “The impact on some individual employees may be significant.”

Several officers are seeing their wages reduced by £7,000 a year - and the pain is likely to get worse as a further £1m of savings are to be carved from the management budget.

A “transitional pay" scheme will give affected workers up to £4,000 over a 12-month period while they try to adjust to their reduced incomes.

But Wallasey Conservative councillor Leah Fraser attacked the ruling Labour administration as having double standards.

She is incensed that at the same policy meeting, the ruling Labour group is expected to agree an eye-watering pay hike for the town hall’s yet-to-be-appointed chief officer - increasing the salary to a possible £175,000.

Councillor Fraser said: “I have been contacted by several officers who are caught up in this ‘remodelling’ exercise - and they are worried sick about how they’re going to deal with such a massive loss of earnings.

“Like most people, they have mortgages and bills to pay and many are financially at full-stretch as it is.

“For the administration in almost the same breath to then agree an astronomical pay rise for the new chief executive is beyond belief.

“The Prime Minister's salary is £142,000 per year. Are they really saying the chief officer of a local council has more responsibility - and deserves a higher rate - than the PM?

“To many hundreds of council workers, it must appear that it’s one rule for them, another for the elite, the upper echelon.”

Labour deputy leader of the council Cllr Ann McLachlan said: “Salaries across the authority are being compressed to reflect the new, flattened structure.

“The idea of the transitional scheme is to avoid redundancies and so retain the knowledge and experience of our staff, while providing a cushion for those whose pay has been reduced.

“Obviously there is some controversy surrounding the pay scale for the incoming chief executive.

“But we are up against national market rates, and the rates that our neighbours in Liverpool and Cheshire are paying their most senior managers, which are far higher than Wirral’s.

“We need to find the right person for this position; whoever gets the job will have to drive through more than £70m of further savings over the next two years. It will not be an easy task.” 

She said the remodelling will result in another one million pounds being sliced out of management costs by 2016.

Meanwhile, at the same meeting on Monday night, a report will be considered on the appointment of the new CEO after the present incumbent, Graham Burgess, takes early retirement at the end of this month.

It remarks that outside experts have been brought in to advise on the process - Martin Denny from the Local Government Association and David Slatter from the Penna recruitment consultancy firm.

Both recommend the present £135,000 package is insufficient to attract quality candidates.

They suggest a scale of between £155,000 to £175,000 would be suitable, “although an appointment does not necessarily have to be made at the top of the range.”

An employment panel met in November and agreed that, as Wirral is the ninth largest metropolitan council in the country, “the current salary of the chief executive is not sufficiently competitive given the size and scope of the authority.”