Haringey council had highest number of £100k+ earners in country

The council sent 68 staff members home with £100,000 last year.

A total of £12.6m was spent paying off 560 redundant staff in the past three years, as revealed by the TaxPayers’ Alliance and the Daily Mail.

Out of this number, 31 Haringey staff members signed compromise agreements with confidentiality clauses, two from the social care department.

These controversial clauses, nicknamed “gagging orders,” prevent staff from discussing the terms of their leaving publicly and curtail speaking out to the press.

“I am appalled to see that public servants in Haringey have been gagged in this way,” said Cllr Gail Engert. “Anyone who is doing a job paid for by the public should be accountable to the public.”

As part of the TaxPayer Alliance investigation, it has emerged that Barnet paid 19 members of council staff more than £100,000 and Camden paid 16 employees more than that figure in 2013/2014.

Camden council spent £3.25m on compromise agreements with confidentiality clauses for 392 departing employees from 2009 to 2014, as previously revealed by the Ham&High.

A Haringey spokeswoman said: “It is absurd to suggest that we would do anything to prevent staff speaking out on social care concerns. We actively encourage staff to do so through our robust whistleblowing policy.

“Haringey is a very different council today. We have lost a third of our workforce, saving taxpayers £120m.”

Camden Cllr Theo Blackwell said that Camden had driven down the cost of senior office pay by 20 per cent. He added that Camden did not operate gagging clauses, but “agrees voluntary compromise agreements with staff.”

A Barnet council spokesperson said that the TaxPayer alliance figures “paint a misleading picture by including pension contributions.”