KIRKLEES Council has paid out more in bonuses than all but one other local authority.
Figures just released show the council paid out just over £5m to staff in 2007/08.
Only Birmingham City Council – the largest local authority in Europe – gave out more.
But Kirklees Council has defended the system and insisted that the payments included overtime and productivity deals, as well as being essential to hold on to hard-working staff.
One Kirklees employee – a tradesman – came 10th in the individual list of bonuses.
The plasterer was paid £42,000 extra last year.
The top bonus payout was to Westminster City Council chief executive Peter Rogers, who received a bonus of £45,000.
The plasterer has not been named by the council.
The figures were revealed by a Freedom of Information request from More 4 News.
The council said the money was paid out to hundreds of blue-collar workers, doing jobs in building services and grounds maintenance.
Steven Leigh, head of policy at the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, based in Lockwood, said he had hoped none of the bonus payments were made to Kirklees managers.
He said: “If these are bonuses paid to people like gardeners then we wouldn’t have a problem with that. But if the money is going to senior council officers then we would have a problem because that wouldn’t reflect what’s happening in society.
“It would be disappointing to most of our members to feel that public sector bonuses are being paid when the private sector is suffering so badly.”
Chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, Matthew Elliott, called on Kirklees to show restraint.
He said: “The size and scope of council bonuses is ludicrous. Public sector employees already enjoy high wages and gold-plated pensions, so it’s totally unfair for taxpayers to have to stump up for massive bonuses on top.
“Too often these bonuses are not given for a job well done, but are awarded regardless of performance, leading to a culture of rewarding failure.
“Councils should come clean about where and how these bonuses are allocated, and let people decide for themselves if they are getting value for money.”
Kirklees Council’s human resources director Cliff Stewart said that £3.8m was paid to workers in Kirklees Building Services, with the remaining £1.3m going to grounds maintenance staff.
He added that of the council’s 19,000 staff, only 900 were eligible for bonus payments.
Mr Stewart said: “The £5.1m is made up of productivity payments and overtime to manual workers such as plasterers, plumbers and electricians.”
Mr Stewart added that one of the reasons Kirklees was high in the bonus league table was because, unlike some other councils, it kept a lot of work in-house.
He said: “We have more in-house services so we have more workers eligible for productivity payments and overtime. Leeds City Council, for example, doesn’t have a building services department. Indeed, Kirklees wins contracts over there against the private sector.
“Our in-house services have proven to be better value for the taxpayer than outsourcing.”
Mr Stewart also defended the £42,000 extra paid to a council plasterer.
He said: “This person is very efficient and effective – he is working hard to create the standard of living he wants for himself and his partner.”
In 2007/08 the plasterer was paid a basic wage of £18,000 for a 37-hour week. He regularly did 11 hours a week overtime, earning £20,000 extra and earned the remaining £22,000 from productivity payments.
Mr Stewart said: “We have about 10 people in building services, including this individual, who provide a real bedrock.”
Terry Cunliffe, Unite’s regional officer for Kirklees, also defended council staff. He said: “Our members work remarkably hard and would earn a lot more in the private sector than they would earn working for Kirklees.”
For more on this story see More 4 News at 8pm tonight .
THE top 10 council bonus payers in 2007/08
1. Birmingham City Council: £9,652, 753
2. Kirklees Council: £5,123,216.46
3. Westminster City Council: £4,992,285
4. Bradford City Council: £3,260,307
5. Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council: £2,388,259.26
6. Bristol City Council: £1,997,001.46
7. East Ayrshire Council: £1,990,371.60
8. Carmarthenshire County Council: £1,865,000
9. Stirling Council: £1,797, 860.23
10. Kensington and Chelsea Council: £1,749,295
THE top 10 individual bonus payments in 2007/08:
1. £45,000 to Westminster City Council chief executive Peter Rogers
2. £27,357 to Mr E Bohl, former executive of Lambeth Council
3. £26,143.68 to a worker in Birmingham City Council’s Highways Division
4. £26,123.66 to employee of Bristol City Council
5. £25, 308.81 to electrician at Derby City Council
6. £25,000 to Derek Myers, the town clerk and chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Council
7. £24,000 to Mid-Sussex Council chief executive John Jory
8. £22,467.43 to a carpenter at Cannock Chase District Council
9 £20,833.27 to a senior lighting operative at Sefton Council
10. £22,000 to an operative within Kirklees Council’s Building Services Department
