Equal pay claims prompt councils to spend £57m on gagging orders
Councils in Scotland have paid out more than £57 million on so called “gagging orders” in the past five years, it has emerged.
A total of 4,296 non-disclosure agreements have been signed by council workers and commercial firms since 2014, according to figures obtained through Freedom of Information by the Daily Mail. But it comes at a time of major cuts to budgets and rises in council tax, with complaints of cuts to town hall budgets from central government.
Non-disclosure agreements (NDAS) can involve significant payouts, redundancy settlements and deals where firms have taxpayer-funded contracts, but have come under criticism over promoting a culture of secrecy.
The rise in equal pay claims settlements is behind the high figures,
Scottish Tory local government spokesman Alexander Stewart said: “This is an extraordinary amount of money to spend on non-disclosure agreements.
“Councilfinancesarealready under enough pressure without having to spend huge amounts on gagging orders.
“All local authorities should be analysing whether such prevalent use of these gagging orders is really necessary.”
Fife Council admitted spending the most on agreements – with £48.5 m handed out to 1,624 people over a five-year period. Bosses said they had faced a “significant number of equal pay-related claims”but refused to provide further details.
In East Lothian, 43 agreements, worth £1,113,882, were agreed, while Highland Council said it had spent £889,946 on 606 NDAS.
Aberdeenshire Council paid out £775,019 on 132 orders, of which 115 involved equal pay disputes.
A spokesman for local council body Cosla said: “NDAS are rightly and properly a matter for individual local authorities to determine with employees, based on their policies and procedures.”