Pay-off ‘value for money’ or ‘obscene'?

A pay-off to a former chief executive of an NHS health board in Wales was “value for money”, according to its chair, but branded “obscene” by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union.

According to the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s annual report and accounts: “The salary reported for Mrs M Burrows includes a payment of £200,000 in respect of a settlement agreement for her departure from the post of chief executive on 16th December 2013 and a payment of £68,817 in respect of her contractual entitlement to payment in lieu of notice. The terms of this exit package were agreed by the board and made in accordance with Welsh Government guidance.”

Mary Burrows received the £200,000 from the health board and in total she received between £465,000 and £475,000 in pay and benefits for eight month’s work.

Burrows left Wales’ largest health board in December 2013, months after a damning report revealed the relationship between her and the board’s former chair had broken down.

Peter Higson, chair of the health board since October 2013, told Welsh Assembly members that the pay-off to its former chief executive was “value for money”.

However, the RCN called for limits on such payouts. David Wallace, associate director for employment relations at RCN Wales, said: “I think it’s obscene that in these austere times, pay-offs of that nature are being paid, when you look at the cutbacks having to be made across the mainstream NHS.”

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-28190084#

www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/betsi-cadwaladr-200k-pay-ex-7390400

www.assemblywales.org/bus-home/bus-business-fourth-assembly-laid-docs.htm?act=dis&id=256919&ds=7/2014