Fife Council is keeping the public in the dark about big redundancy payments, a Fife Tory councillor has claimed.
Dave Dempsey said he was unable to reveal the highest payment made to a single individual because of the Data Protection Act.
“As it happens I know the answer but what I saw was contained in a confidential report and I’m not going to breach that,” he said.
“I believe that the public have a right to know the big number. And it is big. The public could do worse than ask them how many libraries could have been kept open by capping these lavish pay-outs. Or how many potholes filled.”
The council said savings of £13 million had been made since 2010 by cutting the workforce by 11%.
Fife Council’s head of human resources, Sharon McKenzie, said: “Cosla and the trade unions agree pay awards for council workers at a national level, and the pay grades we use in Fife Council reflect the complexity and responsibility of the jobs. In the light of ongoing financial challenges we are continuing to look for efficiencies in terms of how our structures and posts are organised and designed.
“We cannot provide information on individual current or former employees for reasons of data protection and this has been explained to Councillor Dempsey. We can, however, confirm that early retirements and associated redundancies are managed in accordance with our voluntary early retirement policy which requires thorough scrutiny of costs and a requirement for any costs to be recovered within a set period to ensure that the agreed savings and benefits follow.”