This week in history: Hackney Council employee paid £56,000 to do absolutely nothing for four years
The Gazette 30 years ago - Credit: Archant
The watchdog for local government finance launched an investigation into why a council worker had been paid £56,000 to do absolutely nothing for four whole years
The Gazette 30 years ago - Credit: Archant
Winston Brewster had been suspended on full pay in 1984 because of a number of rows between himself and Hackney Council.
Although he had been reinstated by a disciplinary panel two years before in 1986, he had been sat at home since then because he hadn’t been designated a job.
Opposition Tory councillor Joe Lobenstein described the council’s inability to redeploy Mr Brewster as a “scandalous waste of public money”.
He had asked the town hall chief executive Pamela Gordon to check how many more staff were on full pay during lengthy suspensions.
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“I have found this case could just be the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
A council spokesperson said that “mutually agreeable terms” had been agreed between the council and Mr Brewster, who had since quit.
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