“We’re all in this together” is an oft-used phrase to describe how the pandemic affects everyone.
How true, yet false this statement is.
We are all indeed having to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and its on-again, off-again restrictions.
Except it’s been full-salary ahead – and then some – for municipal brass, while many other Chatham-Kent residents have suffered through layoffs and struggled to make ends meet.
Over the past year, parents have juggled layoffs and job searches while homeschooling their kids. Health professionals on all ends of the spectrum, from nurses to executives, have worked longer and harder than ever. Some people carried on as normal while others took a pay cut.
But let’s shine the sunshine onto the Civic Centre. Various top managers already taking home rather bloated paycheques when compared to the private sector (we won’t even mention the gold-plated pension plan and top-shelf benefits packages) pocketed some nice overtime money during COVID.
A cluster of municipal executives managed to bring in a total of $156,000 extra in overtime pay – one individual racked in an extra $29,500 – while the municipality laid off numerous other employees.
Cathy Hoffman, director of Human Resources said between the pandemic and the Erie Shore Drive emergency, top municipal staff racked up about $1.6 million in OT. Factoring the $156,000 payout, that leaves about $1.441 million outstanding. That translates into a great deal of time off in-lieu once the pandemic is over.
A lot of top municipal brass will have some seriously extended vacations in the future.
During a crisis, the rich got richer while the rest of us had to pay the price, either through reduced salaries or cuts to publicly funded services.
We can’t exactly tell people that they don’t deserve to be compensated extra for their time and effort. But something about municipal officials not choosing to take a pay cut in the name of better serving their community leaves a bad taste.
So, dear municipal managers at the top of the pay scales, we ask that at the very least you spend your extra income, or enjoy your extra down time spending your money right here in Chatham-Kent, helping our hard-hit small businesses recover from this extended pandemic.
We don’t need any Ted Cruz types in our midst, jetting off to Mexico while people at home suffer.
