Pay-off scandal hits Holyrood

Workers in the Scottish Parliament are being given huge five-figure redundancy deals then rehired to do the same job.

It is understood that hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been lavished on the tax-free “phantom redundancy” deals in a loophole which critics last night demanded is shut.

The Sunday Post can reveal two members of staff who worked for the late Tory MSP David McLetchie are set to bank around £40,000 in redundancy pay between them in the coming weeks.

But the workers will then be re-hired by Mr McLetchie’s replacement Cameron Buchanan and take up identical jobs in the same office.

The pay-offs have benefited the staff of MSPs from all of the mainstream political parties since the parliament started but critics last night slammed them, claiming such a generous deal would not happen in the private sector.

Eben Wilson, director of campaign group Taxpayer Scotland, said: “These arrangements need to be looked at again, they are hugely unfair to all those working in ordinary businesses who could never dream of getting such generous terms.

“This is simply giving away our money because it is easy to do, parliament should scrap these arrangements and bring them into line with ordinary private sector businesses that only have their own cash to spend.

“Revolving doors from one job to the same one should not be permitted with these added benefits.

“We all want an open and transparent parliament one that deals fairly with the money it spends from our taxes.”

Staff working for MSPs have their wages paid for by the taxpayer but are not employed by the parliament.

Instead they are employed by the politicians directly, who get an allowance to cover their wages.

If an MSP quits, passes away or loses their seat then their staff are made redundant as they no longer have an employer.

The employee is entitled to a minimum of one month’s pay for every year’s service up to a maximum of one year’s salary.

The downside to any staff member who is made redundant is they lose out on continuous employment benefits such as maternity leave and pensions.

If the staff members were employed by the parliament rather than MSPs then the “phantom redundancy” loophole would be closed but workers would still get a pay -off if they lost their job on the departure of their employer.

Holyrood officials do not keep track of the movement of staff between MSPs, or their pay-offs, but it is thought Labour, the SNP and Tories have all “swapped” workers between their outgoing and incoming politicians since 1999.

When Labour’s Mid Scotland and Fife MSP John Park stood down last year, his staff were all made redundant but then re-hired by his replacement Jayne Baxter.

It is also understood a member of former Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken’s staff was rehired by another Conservative MSP after Mr Aitken retired at the 2011 election.

Any redundancy payment up to the value of £30,000 is tax free.

A Scottish parliament spokeswoman said: “The MSP expenses scheme put in place redundancy terms for MSP staff which are ‘reasonable in all the circumstances’.

“The Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (a committee of MSPs which runs Holyrood) agreed it will financially support redundancy payments of up to a maximum of four weeks’ pay for each complete year of service when an MSP ceases to be a member.

“If a member chooses to enhance redundancy terms beyond this level, liability for the additional cost will lie with the member.”