Research by the Association of Local Authority Chief Executives reveals a widening gap between the pay of chief officers in Scotland and that of colleagues in other parts of the public sector, including senior civil servants.
 
The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, which sets the pay of Scotland’s 32 council chief executives, has established a sub-group under its joint bargaining mechanism to examine the ALACE findings.

Any move to increase the remuneration of chief executives over and above the current pay round is likely to provoke a backlash from the public sector unions which have been involved in a long-running battle with councils over the implementation of single status.

But Trevor Muir, chair of ALACE in Scotland, says chief executives now have a “proven case for discussion” with employers. “There is never a great time to raise the question of chief executives’ remuneration [but] there is evidence we have fallen behind,” he told Holyrood.

Chief executives are also expected to argue that their role is more complex and demanding than ever before, with officers subject to increasingly intense and personal public scrutiny. “Expectations are so high nowadays and failure is simply not an option,” Muir said. “You work in a goldfish bowl.”

Pay for top council officers was last examined in 2001, when the McIntosh Review recommended four yearly re-evaluations in the light of public sector comparators. However, no review has since taken place, and chief executives continue to be paid according to a banding system based roughly on the population of each council area which was established at the time of local government reorganisation.

In the meantime, salaries elsewhere in the public sector have shot up, with a handful of chief executives in England earning over £200,000 – well above the rate in Scotland, where even the top job at Glasgow City Council pays less than £160,000. 
 
The negotiations are also expected to include the possibility of linking a proportion of chief executives’ pay to performance, building on the annual appraisals introduced in the wake of the McIntosh Review. In the longer term, councils could move away from centralised pay-setting towards the English model, under which councils determine pay locally for senior officers with regard to market conditions.  

COSLA refused to comment on its part in the negotiations. “The matter is still under discussion as part of the overall chief officials negotiations, and we would not want to say anything at this stage as the process has not yet been completed,” said a spokesman.