“The latest report on district health board chief executive salaries shows that health bosses are continuing to get higher pay rises than they’re prepared to give others,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).
“Once again we’re seeing that the level of pay rises being handed to the people running our public hospitals is out of sync with what is being offered to those doing front line clinical and other work. They really need to think about the message they’re sending by doing this.”
Mr Powell was commenting on the publication of chief executives’ remuneration published recently by the State Services Commission.
He says ASMS analysis of the figures found that district health board chief executive salaries increased by a conservatively estimated 2.2% in the year from June 2015 to June 2016, excluding end-of-contract payments. This is more than five times the inflation rate (0.4%) for that period. Looking at a longer timeframe, chief executive salaries appear to have increased by an average of 20.6% from June 2010 to June 2015.
“Meanwhile, they are insisting in collective agreement negotiations that the staff they employ accept a 1% pay rise in the first year,” says Mr Powell.
“That’s their financial parameters for the rest of the workforce but obviously it doesn’t apply to them. That’s a dangerous message to be sending a health workforce that’s increasingly under pressure from high levels of unmet health need, resourcing constraints and shortages.
“Regrettably double-standards have become the norm in our public health service.”