REQUIRED READING..

Here in deepest Kent, we`re getting used to unadulterated profligacy with taxpayers` money. We have recently had the extraordinary case of Kent County Council`s former Director of Regeneration and Transport (whatever that means) being paid the staggering sum of £365,000, having voluntarily resigned his £100,000 plus post after about a year.

He was appointed from West Yorkshire - somewhere oop north - and instead of moving his family down here, he chose to leave his wife and four daughters back oop north, whilst he worked in Maidstone during the week and commuted back to Yorkshire at weekends. Not surprisingly, these arrangements soon upset his `work/life balance,` so he resigned and is now Chief Executive of Derby City Council which is still quite a way down south from Yorkshire. It seems the £365,000 was paid due to employment law and it also seems that he was entitled to the payment.

With even more publicity, we learn that Rose Gibb, who resigned as Chief Executive of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust just days before the damning report which condemned the Trust for presiding over the scandalous regime which lead to over a hundred patients dying from hospital infections such as c. difficile. Ms. Gibb felt she was entitled to a payout of £250,000 but this was originally stopped by the then Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, leading to a three year court battle which yesterday culminated in the payout being judged lawful by High Court judges. Again it seems that Ms. Gibb was also legally entitled to the £250,000 payout despite the fact that she also had voluntarily resigned her post.

Now, legal entitlement is one thing. Employment law is another. And call me old fashioned, but I was under the impression that people who resigned voluntarily were only entitled to any payment for a period of notice which they may or may not be required to work. I was also under the impression that `important` people holding positions of responsibility at the top of organisations might themselves show a degree of self restraint and personal responsibility to themselves, their employers and the taxpayers who pay their salaries. Clearly, I was wrong.

The time has come to make `MORAL VALUES FOR DUMMIES` required reading, along with its sequel, `THE DUMMIES GUIDE TO REVISING EMPLOYMENT LAW.`