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Pay rises for PFI 'pirates' attacked

Barrie Clement
Tuesday 10 September 2002 00:00 BST
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The Prime Minister was urged yesterday to condemn the boardroom "pirates'' who enjoyed pay rises of up to 65 per cent on the back of involve-ment in the Government's private finance initiative.

The highest-paid directors of the leading PFI contractors receive a "staggering'' £583,000 a year, a Labour Research Department report for the GMB general union said.

Speaking on the eve of Tony Blair's address to the TUC annual conference in Blackpool, John Edmonds, general secretary of the GMB, said public- sector workers could not be expected to exercise restraint under such circumstances. "Tony Blair has often talked about the need for fairness not favours in industrial relations and tomorrow he has the perfect opportunity to practise what he preaches by condemning the staggering greed of the PFI privatisation pirates,'' Mr Edmonds said.

The report found that Paris Moayedi, chief executive of the Jarvis Group – the company at the heart of the Potters Bar rail disaster – saw his pay increase from £359,000 to £595,000 over the latest financial year. This was a rise of more than £200,000 or 65.7 per cent, the study said.

On top of its responsibility to maintain the points at Potters Bar, which fell apart when a train sped over them, Jarvis is employed on 21 PFI projects valued at more than £560m.

Mr Edmonds asked: "How can it be right that salary increases for firefighters are rejected out of hand when directors like Mr Moayedi can enjoy £200,000 salary increases funded by the taxpayer?

"Public-sector workers cannot be expected to exercise restraint when they see millions of pounds of public money squandered on salary hikes for rich directors, rather than being used to revitalise our schools and hospitals.''

The Labour Research Department report also found that Francis Mackay, chairman of the Compass Group, saw his salary jump from £864,000 in 2000 to £1,204,000 last year, a rise of 39.4 per cent. Compass is involved in four PFI projects with a capital value of £764.6m.

Mike Bottiger, a director at Interserve, saw his salary for the latest financial year rise from £672,000 to £780,000, a 16.6 per cent increase. Interserve has signed 14 PFI projects.

The TUC is expected to endorse a resolution committing unions to outright opposition to PFIs for the first time.

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