One-fifth of bosses ignored pay cut plea

• Author: Ben Leahy
• Published date: 06 February 2021
• Publication title: Bay of Plenty Times

Those who did not follow Jacinda Ardern’s lead included judges earning more than $400,000 and chief executives with annual wages as high as $500,000.

An NZME investigation has found that 17 organisation bosses (20 per cent) did not take a temporary 20 per cent pay cut.

Ardern announced last April during the country’s first COVID-19 lockdown that she and her ministers would take 20 per cent pay cuts for six months in solidarity with Kiwis doing it tough during the pandemic. Officials then wrote to 87 semi-government organisations — known as Crown entities — encouraging their bosses to follow suit.

Public Service Minister Chris Hipkins was reluctant to criticise those chief executives who ignored the letters, saying there might be good reasons why some did not follow suit.

However, he said the pay cut had been an important way for sector leaders “to demonstrate solidarity with Kiwis during a time of great uncertainty and worry”.

He also praised the 80 per cent of bosses who voluntarily accepted the cut when many feared the COVID-19 pandemic would bring New Zealand’s economy to its knees and trigger mass job losses.

Many organisations went further, with their board of directors taking pay cuts, despite not being directly asked to do so.

However, among those receiving letters but failing to heed the pay-cut call was the Public Trust — New Zealand’s largest provider of wills — and chief executive Glenys Talivai on a salary package up to $529,000.

The group noted that it generated its own income and did not receive taxpayers’ cash.

However, other bosses in similarly profitable organisations did take cuts.

Lotto NZ’s full board and boss Chris Lyman, for instance, all took temporary pay cuts, even though the group generated $1.4 billion in sales and handed out $313 million in grants.

Judges Colin Doherty and Andrew Becroft, in their roles as chairman of the Independent Police Conduct Authority and Children’s Commissioner, also did not take pay cuts. They earned $465,931 and $272,000 respectively.

The IPCA said judges’ salaries were set in a formal process protected by law as a way of ensuring their independence and impartiality and Doherty’s pay also reflected his ongoing work as a district court judge.

Ultimately, no judges ended up taking pay cuts.

Yet, other public officials in critically independent roles, such as financial watchdog Auditor-General John Ryan, wrote to the Remuneration Authority — which sets judges’ and other officials’ salaries — volunteering...