Big words, huge wage

Jun 22 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

NEWS that Kirklees Council is prepared to pay a salary of almost £120,000 to one of its top officials must come as a shock to many.

Readers will have reacted to today’s story with dismay and disbelief – especially as the average wage in Kirklees as a district is below the national average.

According to the general union the GMB, the average full-time wage in Kirklees is £25,626 compared to an average of £31,323 across the UK.

Still woeful compared to the staggering sums Kirklees is prepared to pay.

On top of that, the job description is so full of local government gobbledegook it’s virtually impossible to work out what the job is all about.

But Kirklees Council’s human resources director Cliff Stewart said: “The terms used in the advert will mean a lot to the sort of people who are looking at this.’’

It just makes you wonder about the ‘sort of people’ who are going to apply for this salary-loaded job. Are they in the real world with the rest of us?

The council’s services are all about people so people should be able to clearly understand what they are all about.