Unison is to write to Harrogate Borough Council today warning them not to offer senior managers more favourable redundancy terms than other staff when it is abolished.

Seven district councils, including Harrogate, and North Yorkshire County Council will cease to exist on April 1, when they will be replaced by the new North Yorkshire Council.

All staff, except the chief executives, are due to transfer to the North Yorkshire Council under TUPE regulations.

But Hambleton District Council has agreed to pay £767,065 to four senior officers who decided they do not wish to work for the unitary North Yorkshire Council after April 1.

The payments were agreed even though the four directors had been assured they would be offered “suitable roles” at no financial loss to themselves when they transferred to North Yorkshire Council .

This has prompted trade union Unison to write to all the councils demands all staff be treated the same.

A spokesman for the North Yorkshire branch of Unison said:

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Harrogate Borough Council’s chief officer employment committee is due to meet tonight to discuss awarding chief executive Wallace Sampson a £101,274 redundancy package.

Mr Sampson would receive a contractual redundancy payment of £71,633 plus £29,641 for a 12-week notice period he will not have to work.

Mr Sampson’s exit package is considerably less than that announced so far for other chief executives who will leave their jobs on March 31.

Selby District Council chief executive Janet Waggot is to receive a redundancy package worth £210,000 and Hambleton District Council’s chief executive, Justin Ives, is to receive a £225,000 settlement.

Harrogate Borough Council has refused to say whether its chief executive will receive a payout package when the authority is abolished in April.

Questions over possible payments to Wallace Sampson were raised after a proposed redundancy package of around £225,000 for Hambleton District Council’s chief executive was criticised by “dismayed and angry” union officials.

But when asked if its most senior officer would receive something similar, Harrogate Borough Council only provided the following statement:

“We respect the contractual rights of all our employees, and relevant employment law.

“This applies to all employees irrespective of their salary or position.”

Mr Sampson, who is paid a £118,447-a-year salary, will along with the other district council chiefs in North Yorkshire see his role scrapped when a new unitary authority covering the whole county launches in April.

County officials have repeatedly insisted that most staff will be transferred across to the new North Yorkshire Council.

However, there have been some uncertainties over job security which has led to an increase in staff quitting ahead of the eight existing councils merging into one.

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Unison – which represents over 6,000 local government workers in North Yorkshire – said it was seeking clarity from the existing councils after Hambleton’s proposal which it said “will not go down well” with staff and taxpayers during the cost of living crisis.

The union said in a statement:

“We have already had contact from our members who work for Hambleton District Council to express their shock and disgust at this proposal.

“We will also be writing to the other district and borough councils across North  Yorkshire to make sure they are not tempted to do the same.”

‘Inappropriate expenditure’

The comments come after Harrogate Borough Council was last year told to change its rules on payouts for departing staff after auditors raised concerns over what they described as “inappropriate expenditure”.

Figures published in the council’s annual statement of accounts showed £354,000 was paid out to 19 former employees in 2019/20.

This was an increase from the previous financial year when £278,000 was agreed for 15 staff.

The statement of accounts also showed one member of staff received a £62,000 exit package in 2019/2020, although it is not known what job title they had or how much they were earning before they left their role.

The only member of staff who was named was former director of community Paul Campbell who was paid £55,065 in compensation for loss of office.

It was later agreed that all payments – which can also include allowances and hardship cash – have to be approved by the borough council leader and chief executive, and reported on an annual basis.

Any payments over £100,000 now also require approval from full council.

Previously, the payments were signed off by a monitoring officer and only those made to senior staff were reported annually.

Meanwhile, North Yorkshire County Council’s chief executive Richard Flinton was earlier this year appointed to carry out the same role on the new unitary authority at a crucial time of change for the county.

He will earn up to £197,000 a year with responsibility for an annual budget of £1.4 billion and a workforce of 10,500 staff.