Council chiefs have rejected claims they receive unacceptably-high severance payments. A Sunday newspaper hit out at ‘boomerang council bosses' after highlighting a number who have accepted large payoffs from councils before returning to other well-paid jobs in the public sector. The newspaper also slammed the practice of council chief executives retiring on a council pension, but then returning to work in another sector. Director general of SOLACE, David Clark, said: ‘Once someone has retired from a council, they can't claim a salary from an organisation that is in the same pension bracket. There is nothing stopping them working elsewhere. It is normal in the sector. My view on severance pay is that it is about what the employer is contractually employed to do.'
