Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) have reacted with fury to news that 16 senior civil servants in the Scottish Executive are to share a ‘golden goodbye’ totalling £1.8m on top of their pensions. The details of the windfall, which averages £100,000 for each of the members and former members of the executive’s board of directors, emerged from the executive’s annual accounts for the past financial year. The lump sum will be paid in addition to their pensions, which pay them up to £80,000 a year, and the civil servants will be able to claim it when they reach 60. Included in the group is the former head of personnel, Agnes Robson, who will receive a pay out of between £95,000 and £100,000. MSPs have called for a review of pensions rules, which they claim are creating a growing divide between top civil servants and the rest of the public sector in Scotland. Derek Brownlee, a Conservative MP on the Hollyrood finance committee told The Scotsman the figures would go down ‘like a lead balloon’ with the public. “Many people do not even have pension – this raises the basic issue of fairness when people who cannot afford their own pensions find out that they are paying to fund other people’s generous pensions,” he said. Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday The Scottish Executive said the remuneration was appropriate for the demands of the job and the workload expected of civil servants.
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