Bumper salaries don't reflect culture change

Judith Collins’ promise of a culture change at ACC appears not to have filtered through to its HR department, with more than 300 of its staff now on $100,000-plus salaries and its top earner pocketing $760,000 a year, Labour’s ACC spokesperson Andrew Little says.

“In a year in which ACC has had a light well and truly shone on its operational performance which hasn’t looked too flash, this surely isn’t the time to award big salary increases to those at the top.

“The fact that there has been an 18 per cent jump in the number of staff paid over $100,000 – double the average wage - beggars belief.

“Not only that but there’s another four being paid more than $500,000.

“At a time when other working Kiwis are being asked to tighten their belts and finding it ever more difficult to get by, it is difficult to see any justification for that.

“It’s even more surprising given the main staff collective agreement has not been settled for three years.

“Once again we have a situation where, when a mistake is made, the front-line staff cop it the hardest even though they may not be responsible.

“I’m not sure Ms Collins personal employee of the month award, itself a highly irregular thing in the public service, is any substitute for a decent pay rise for those in the lower ranks,” said Andrew Little.