Money for Nothing?

Mar 9 2008 by Matt Withers, Wales On Sunday

Our Welsh Assembly Members were handed an extra 8.3 per cent in their pay packets last week - backdated to May 2007. With more money sloshing around Cardiff Bay then ever before, MATT WITHERS reveals what our AMs do to earn such lavish sums of money...

IT is not, says the Welsh Assembly’s Presiding Officer Lord Elis-Thomas, a pay rise. It is a “changing differential in pay”.

But, to the outsider, the extra 8.3 per cent in their pay packets – backdated to last May – which Assembly Members were given last week undoubtedly looked like a pay rise.

And it inevitably provoked criticism from public sector workers limited to two per cent pay rises this year – criticism which heightened when six Plaid Cymru AMs announced they would not be accepting their rises.

The announcement was made last week as the Assembly Commission, which sets pay, said they were an inevitable result of the Assembly’s enhanced powers to draft and pass laws.

It means a backbench AM’s salary rises from £47,292 to £50,692 – 82 per cent that of an MP, compared to the previous 76.5 per cent.

But public sector workers’ own independently-assessed rise this year was a meagre two per cent amid warnings that belts needed to be tightened as the economy entered potentially rocky waters. A number of unions asked why AMs were apparently exempt from this.

Wayne Baker, organiser of South Wales Police Federation, said the rise “defines hypocrisy”.

“If they are entitled to it, they should get it, but so should everyone else get what they are entitled to.

“It’s only police and nurses that have been limited to two per cent. It is an attack on these bodies.”

And a PCS union spokeswoman, in more diplomatic language, but making the same point, said: “It’s fair to say our view would be it’s unfortunate timing given the very tight pay constraint that the Westminster Government is imposing and our members are facing below-inflation pay increases.”

Police officers in Wales have marched in London over the Government’s decision to limit their rise to 1.9 per cent, despite an independent review recommending 2.5 per cent. The lowest measure for inflation puts it at 2.2 per cent.

A huge political row erupted on Friday as the six Plaid Cymru members announced they would not be accepting the rise.

Chris Franks, Alun Ffred Jones, Leanne Wood, Nerys Evans, Bethan Jenkins and Dai Lloyd all said they would refuse the extra cash.

Ms Wood said: “Yesterday, I met Remploy workers in Treforest when their factory closed.

“I personally would not be able to look them in the eye if I had accepted this pay rise.”

But they attracted huge criticism from both Labour and the Conservatives (the Liberal Democrats also agree with the rise, although they have held off from attacking the Plaid AMs).

Mid and West Wales Labour AM Alun Davies (left) accused the Plaid six of playing “sixth form politics”, adding: “It’s time for people to grow up.

“At the end of the day, they have got to decide whether they want to be a serious political party or just a party that tries to score cheap political points with little credibility.

“If you want to govern a country and be taken seriously you have got to leave the students’ union behind and take difficult decisions.” Conservative leader Nick Bourne – whose own pay packet now amounts to £91,337 – accused the Plaid AMs of “the worst kind of political opportunism”, adding: “The people of Wales will see through this posturing.

“Plaid AMs need to make it crystal clear now whether or not they will accept the pay increase agreed because of the Assembly’s new responsibilities and powers.

“If they forego this rise, they must make it clear exactly what they intend to do with the money.”

The argument for the pay rise is about whether AMs’ workload has increased since the Assembly was given limited law-making powers last year. All say it has; Lib Dem AM Peter Black (below) claims members work 70-hour weeks.

Caerphilly Labour AM Jeff Cuthbert supported the rise, saying his own workload has risen as a result of the new powers.

“I would say I think it’s probably quite justified,” he told Wales on Sunday.

“My own workload has risen considerably.

“I’ve already been on one LCO (Legislative Competence Order) committee, now the subject committee I’m sitting on meets every week and in addition I have responsibilities for the European Structural Funds. There’s been a considerable increase on that front.

“On the constituency front, AMs are more and more getting into the psyche of people’s minds, which MPs have done for years, and the workload has increased significantly.”

And Liberal Democrat Health spokeswoman Jenny Randerson described her workload since the new powers were introduced as “just crushing, really crushing”. She said: “It isn’t just a matter of time. The whole nature of the job is changing.

“If you look at the work of the Finance Committee, which I sit on, we never did proper budget scrutiny before. Now we’ve already uncovered all sorts of decisions taken in the past.

“There are only 60 of us to ensure that we get the legislation right. The laws in Wales have to be as good as they are in the UK as a whole.

“It’s a hell of a burden.”

But Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr Adam Price said his colleagues in the Assembly who had come out against the rise had done the right thing.

“I’m pleased that the Plaid Cymru leadership and ordinary members have taken the strong line that they have,” he said.

“I understand that they have made themselves very unpopular with other AMs from other parties, but their responsibility is not to some cosy political class. A lot of people are struggling now financially and it’s going right through into people on middle incomes.

“Costs are rising, fuel costs, energy costs, mortgages are higher than they were some years ago.

“I think at a time like this, you’ve got to be sensitive.

“If that makes them unpopular with other politicians who cares, quite frankly? If we’re going to try to rebuild the people’s trust in politics, this is the last thing politicians should be considering.”