Workshop Three Case Study
Prepared and led by Sandra Dutson. Sessions chaired by Mel Griggs
A local council has advertised the job of Chief Executive. The LA is very strapped for cash and many
people have been made redundant. This also means services are being cut and there are consequent
pressures on voluntary agencies.
The pay advertised for the new Chief executive is £150,000. This is in fact a bit lower than the
previous rate of £175,000 but the local paper has been bombarded with letters of outrage.
At a recent meeting of the local Churches Together group it was suggested a deputation go to the
leader of the Council and express concerns that this was excessive and insensitive and make
alternative suggestions for how the money could benefit more people. You are in the group who
are planning what should be said and need to work on arguments a) what level of pay might be
acceptable and why and b) How you would advise using any money saved.
Trade Union.
CAB volunteer.
School governor. .
Local foodbank volunteer. .
District nurse.
Age Concern.
Parent of child with leaning disabilities.
Carer of parent with dementia.
By the end you need to have decided on key points to take to Council Leader.
Every one will be allocated a role so there will probably be 2 or 3 in each role.
In these 2s or 3s decide on your responses.
Then in whole group bring together all points raised.
Finally decide on 3 key points to take to the council leader.
Report on Morning session:
Notes taken by Lucinda Smyth
Responses: Trade Union – reduce differentials, so that there can be more employees (at
lower levels)
Carers – need more people
Nurses – pay differentials in NHS should be (no more than) 5:1. more health
ed.
Schools – need more outdoor experience
CAB - money for more people to be trained
Food bank – allied to an allotment
Age Concern – need a paid volunteer coordinator
Ethical points – daily ration enough eg manna in the wilderness. Theology of money see
Jesus’ advice in NT. Isaiah 58. Prosperity without growth.
Job sharers/part time workers may be less committed. If doing fewer hours same pay very
expensive. Problems arise with P/T workers in keeping system going as in nursing or office
even if shared info. using email.
What about alternative life-styles sharing goods etc.
Importance of reliable support of each other in bad times or age/ frailty.
Does security depend on money - risk of debt.
Importance of relative wealth eg Europe: SE Asia
Should we measure GDP or happiness ?
Should there be a minimum income?
Conclusions: Management culture not helpful.
Community needs to share assets.
What would be the indicators of General Happiness?
Covenant or contract – the former is stronger.
Additional notes by Tony Emerson
Most of the participants in the role play argued for reductions in the CEO pay so that there
could be more resources for their particular interest.
Someone noted that if the CEO salary was reduced, then the salaries of the deputy CEO and
other senior managers would need to be reduced pro-rata. Resulting in a salary gradient
that is not so steep.
It was recognised that an organisation takes a risk in not paying its ‘top people’ as much as
comparable organisations do – a risk that your senior staff would ‘migrate’ to other
organisations. One person pointed out that at this very senior level people often seem to
value themselves and their peers by the size of their salaries. But is the risk worth taking?
Particularly in the public and voluntary sectors where we would hope that people would be
motivated by more than money? What can you do in such an organisation to mitigate
against such risk – e.g. by developing your own management talent?
On part time work, I think the opposite point was also made: that part-timers often put
more in per hour, as it were, and take less time off for health care appointments etc as they
can do these in their days off.
afternoon session
Notes taken by David Miller
Case Study – responses from discussion groups
Trade Unions
£75k salary – save libraries and advice centres; install solar as investment
CAB
Promote from within at salary not too much above next tier
School Governors Spend savings on school meals, play, clubs, etc. Distribute small sums
widely.
Food Bank
Salary £125k. Use savings for training for clients
Nurses
Invest in community health locally
Age Concern
Build capacity of existing services
Carers (children) Invest in special needs support, and in volunteers
Cares (dementia) Invest in staff training
Mary Grey:
Jesus wanted to de-stabilise and transform. He was itinerant – he didn’t settle in one place
and establish a power base.
Two types of power – institutional power where the power is invested in the office or
position; and dynamic/fluid power, which is the sort used by Jesus; which results in the
empowerment of other people. It involved stepping outside the cultural norms of the day
and, for example, empowering women.
How do we set about using alternative models of hierarchy and power?
Example: A Foodbank hands out food. We need to move to a better solution –
enabling/empowering the recipients to earn enough to feed themselves.
Sharing/hospitality. Note that it is often the case that poorer communities do this better
than we do!
We’ve lost this culture in the last half-century. After WW2 there were street parties.
In Belgium car-free Sundays have resulted in neighbours seeing and talking to each other.
Streetbanks noted as a good example of a project that promotes community.
Another example was quoted of a person who lived in a community, sharing big items like
cars, which resulted in being able to work part time and still afford to live.
Mel Griggs mentioned the Theology of Money (I think this is a book by Philip Goodchild),
noting that Jesus was a radical.
Different models of organising a company include one (called Semco) described in another
book: Maverick!: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace by Ricardo
Semler. There are only three tiers in the company and the workers elect the manager.
It was mentioned that the structure of companies in Germany differs from that in the UK.
Attention was drawn to the resources available from the Equality Trust including The Spirit
Level.
A paper was circulated showing the income of different categories of people:
CEO of FTSE 100 company £2.7million salary - £2,700,000
Bond Trader
£225k
£225,000
Median Gross earnings UK £25.9k
£25,900
State pension
£7,142
£7,142
Job seekers allowance
£3,510
£3,510
We noted different payment policies/models of companies like John Lewis, the Co-op and
Triodos.
Some organisations pay according to needs.
Scott Bader Commonwealth was quoted as an example of a company that operates a
flexible salary and benefits package.
Sharing Work
Firstly, are we right to assume we could all work less, or is one problem that much work that
needs to be done isn’t being done because nobody will pay for it to be done?
Some current obstacles to working fewer hours for less pay:
The cost of housing, especially in the London area.
The cost of basics like food and fuel.
The UK is too London-centric - jobs need to be re-distributed geographically.
We ran out of time before we could pursue this any further.
Personal observation from David - the case study was good, but because we had so many
different discussion groups the feedback took a large proportion of the total time available,
so we never go to the end of the task. Jeremy did a good job composing something to feed
back at the last minute!