Almost £12 million worth of golden handshakes were awarded by Fife Council last year while it cuts services to save money.
Thirty-four high earners walked away with deals of more than £100,000, at a time when the local authority faces crippling budget pressure.
The sum spent on early retirement packages for 235 departing employees was higher in the kingdom than in any other local authority area in Scotland, despite Aberdeen awarding them to more staff.
It dwarfed that spent on exit deals in the same period by councils in Dundee, (£1.38m), Perth and Kinross (£1.56m) and Angus (£3.5m).
Conservative councillor Linda Holt claimed the figures looked like a “fat cat feeding frenzy”, while the council insisted deals were subject to strict controls to ensure future savings.
Mrs Holt, councillor for East Neuk and Landward, said: “The council’s largesse sticks in the craw of many Fifers not only because it is extremely selective.
“Lower ranking Fife Council workers are denied such lucrative deals while their workload, stress levels and job satisfaction all suffer as they have to cover the work previously done by the escapees.
“Splurging almost £12 million in one year on six-figure pay outs for their own also looks like a fat cat feeding frenzy on the backs of everyone in Fife, who face increased council tax bills and cuts in everything the council does from maintaining our roads to staffing our schools.
“The current Labour/SNP administration has weakened the facility by which elected members can subject the council’s operations to scrutiny, so I doubt we will get satisfactory answers to the many questions Fife’s golden good-bye culture raises.”
Eileen Rowand, the council’s finance and corporate services executive director, said the workforce had been reduced by around 12% since 2010.
She said: “Exit package costs are incurred through retirements as well as redundancy.
“They’re subject to scrutiny and strict controls to make sure we reduce workforce costs and generate future savings.
“Although the costs are significant it should be noted that not all of this is payable to the employee.
“A proportion is used to offset any impact on the pension fund in line with early retirement policy.”
Aberdeen Council had the second highest cost of £11.3m for 246 packages.
The lowest sum was paid out in Inverclyde of £900,000, shared by 24 departing employees.
