Losing MPs to get pay-off in new package
(CNS): To go with the new names and rules at the Cayman Islands House of Parliament, MPs are also getting a new, even more generous salary and benefits package that includes a three-month pay-off should they lose their seats in the election in May. MPs who fail to retain their seats will now get a lump sum in the region of CI$30,000 to help ease the transition from the world of politics.
MPs agreed to give themselves the new ‘severance’ package when they were making committee stage amendments to the Legislative Assembly Management Law, which was passed in December as part of the parliament’s transition to independence
In addition to giving those MPs who lose and those who chose not to stand for re-election three months salary, the new package provides MPs with more money for constituency and executive allowances.
All MPs will receive $5,000 per month for their offices and constituency expense and the MPs representing Cayman Brac and Little Cayman will get an additional accommodation and travel allowance of $5,000. The premier will also get an executive allowance of $5,000 per month in addition to his constituency allowance, while the opposition leader will pocket an additional $3,500 per month.
The new law sets out a pay scale schedule of MPs’ earnings and the pay given to the senior posts but it still does not reveal exactly how much each member gets, depending on their office, on pay and benefits.
The law also give the premier discretionary powers over pay, which Ezzard Miller, the independent MP for North Side, pointed out will enable the next leader to add more pay and allowances for members where he sees fit. Miller said he had objected to the discretionary nature of the additional pay and had unsuccessfully lobbied for a more transparent and clear pay schedule, which would allow the public to see exactly what MPs were getting and for what.
Miller warned that the door was open for the next premier to use that power in the horse-trading over the next government, which most pundits expect will happen in May 2021.
The bill also deals with the new management structure of parliament and the creation of the Legislative Commission and its council, as well as pay structures for parliamentary staff, who are no longer civil servants.
Check back with CNS later this week for more on potential post election bribery.
Category: Politics
What an absolute disgrace with so many people out of work and struggling. Wow, I didn’t think they could any more greedy or entitled. Unless we get some decent people running, I am not going to bother to vote any of this lot back in. Poor Cayman
The point is that if you don’t vote they still get $30,000
This is disgusting.
Revolting.
If an MP doesn’t get re-elected it means that they didn’t do a good enough job in their duty of serving the constituents that elected them! So the politician’s fail to do their job and they get a financial reward on the back of it?
Disgusting!!! What a bunch of greedy hogs.
The Queens BLACK ROD should be banging on their Parliament Door to find out what’s doing on.
Anonymous says:
05/01/2021 at 5:53 am
Imagine Ezzard was a part of it and run his mouth about corruption. They care to line their pockets more than representing our interest. Lets get them out.
Like20 Dislike12
The law also give the premier discretionary powers over pay, which Ezzard Miller, the independent MP for North Side, pointed out will enable the next leader to add more pay and allowances for members where he sees fit. Miller said he had objected to the discretionary nature of the additional pay and had unsuccessfully lobbied for a more transparent and clear pay schedule, which would allow the public to see exactly what MPs were getting and for what.
The above post is a prime example of how these baboons are elected. 20 people agreed with the post with ignorance…
Lets see which parties, or independents, have ‘repeal the MLA severance package’ as a plank on their platform at the next election.
This might give you a better idea of that headspace:
Oct 20, 2020…”At the Friday legislative sitting, North Side MLA Ezzard Miller said he supported the bill, contingent on certain issues being addressed.
He called for staff on the civil service administrative arm of the House to retain all their benefits, with the same granted to any new staff coming in.
Miller also made the case for better remuneration packages.
Miller had advocated for a better salary grade for the opposition leader, one on par with a minister.”
In the meantime tribunal and board members in general (other than OfReg) get nothing or tokens for long hours and responsibility.
Long hours? Responsibility? Get nothing? Surely you jest!!!
Not a sausage at Government House.
And this is what our MLA’s are worrying about and putting time and energy into during a global pandemic?? Are they all worried they will be voted out? They should . Every single one of them who stood silent on the Mckeeva issue needs to go. Especially the women in the house. Shame on you !!! Vote them out! No pay raises or bonuses!!! Put that money towards education.
I would like to point out that as much as we might each individually dislike this severance
it is entirely standard for most elected officials to get some sort of windfall after vacating office and I understand why
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Regardless of agreement or disapproval it is standard operating procedure just like when they give themselves raises while dithering about raising the minimum wage (which our MPs have been doing for this entire term)
Just one of those things legislators around the world do regardless of party or political affiliation
In my personal opinion elected legislators in Cayman have for the most time a part time job, they should at most receive the average annual salary of the Caymanians (and only Caymanians) they serve
There is almost no better way to incentivise them to raise the incomes of Caymanians directly, if Caymanians and it would also eliminate motivation for the type of people who run for office just for the 100k+ annual salary which they would otherwise never be able to achieve in the private sector
What the hell are you talking about?
I think they had a stroke half way through…
I am talking about facts, based in reality backed up with evidence
You know, the thing you clearly seem to be unfamiliar with
Severance pay for Legislators whether they lose their seat or are retired is standard across most parliamentary democracies and similar government types
Here are a few examples
In The UK:
“If they’ve been an MP for two years or more, they are also entitled to a Loss of Office Payment – which is twice the amount of money they get when they’re made redundant” – https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-50779961
In Australia: Both MPs and Senators are entitled to a “Settlement Allowance” of three months of base salary if they retire or lose their seats and go on to seek further employment
https://www.aph.gov.au/about_parliament/parliamentary_departments/parliamentary_library/pubs/bn/1011/superannuationbenefits#_Toc274224148
In Canada:
“Under House of Commons rules, members of Parliament are eligible for a lump sum payment equal to six months’ salary. And the severance pay is awarded whether the politician was defeated in a campaign — or voluntarily chose not to seek re-election.” – https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-severance-package-1.3211474
In New Zealand:
“All 34 MPs who resigned or lost their seat at the election still get paid a salary for three months – around $40,000 in total, or $3300 a week.” – https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/former-mps-and-their-perks-salary-free-travel-and-taxpayer-funded-cars/JCL6DXYJXAME2Y2ODLMFN2765I/
In the EU:
When an MEP’s term comes to an end, they are entitled to a “transition allowance” linked to how long they have been in the European Parliament.
The size of the payment is equivalent to one month’s salary for every year they were in office – although the maximum payment is capped at two years.
– https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48037162
I know what I am talking about, can’t say the same for you I am afraid
Rewarded for failure. Those poor souls, bless ’em.
What happens if these losers get re-elected 4 or 5 years later ? Do they have to give back their golden handshake ?
But they are sticking their snouts in the trough again. It makes double-dipping seem reasonable.
This is a disgrace!
So many people out of jobs and struggling and these people have the audacity to give themselves pay-offs and severance packages?
They make thousands of dollars a month, best part-time job, now they want to be rewarded if the people vote them out for being incompetent?
You see why people think Cayman Islands is corrupt.
Let’s not forget that they also get it if they choose not to run again
A 30k payment for losing a re-election motivates more career politicians which promises continued corruption. No one will just walk away when term is up, even when it’s obviously the right thing to do because running again is now a win-win scenario.
#lame
All snouts in the trough, they never let themselves down.
Fire the lot of them now! Give us direct rule until we can muster a REAL set of politicians with sound morals, ethics and consideration for the people.
Sorry, Direct Rule. This bunch will go to any end to keep their place at the trough. Honest Caymanians are hard to find!
Just when you think things could not get any worse
It turns out to be Just Another Day in Absurdistan
The greatest gravy train to be on in the world. What gets Caymanians angry?
We are such stupid people putting up with all this crap.
Just a couple of thoughts.
1. We don’t need 19 MLAs. 10 would suffice. Cayman is only 60,000 people, isn’t a country that has massive overseas obligations and has a relatively good civil service that looks after the day to day heavy lifting. It’s not perfect but just compare it to others in the region and you will soon realize how good it is.
2. There should be term limits on MLAs. No more than 2 consecutive and 4 lifetime terms.
3. Anyone convicted of a criminal offense regardless of length of sentence is disqualified from standing for office.
4. The Governor on recommendation from the Deputy Governor should set MLA pay and benefit packages. Not the MLAs themselves.
5. We need a proactive Governor/Deputy Governor. The people are fed up with this nonsense.
6. We need some true visionary MLAs. Stop thinking in 4 year election cycles and think about long term. You know like the dump, overdevelopment, bike and walking paths, renewable energy, international reputation, diversifying the economy, fixing the broken education system and so on.
Cayman is a great place to live, work, visit etc. but at the rate we are going it will soon resemble every other welfare based Caribbean island where the only jobs are taxi drivers and shops selling t-shirts and key chains to cruise ship visitors.
This is ABSURD!!! Who the hell loses their job due to incompetency and gets rewarded a severance package worth $30k?? This is a risk you take when you venture in to politricks. If you are useless and XXXXX, the people will vote you out (unless you’re McKeeva). This is not a real place.
10:33 answer – the private sector
Why is it that anything that affects Caymanians in a positive was is a bad thing.
Did the public know this was being proposed and voted on? When was it voted on?
Name the people who prepared the recommendation and who brought it before the House.
We need more MPs actually or Parliament will not function properly. As of the next election there will be a Premier and 7 Ministers. Thanks to collective responsibility, that’s 8 out of 19 who are bound to vote for whatever the government proposes. We’ve seen in recent elections that once one party only needs a couple more for a majority, they tend to get the numbers, and it’s easy for them to do this now because they all represent different constituencies, so they don’t owe their wins to each other and feel free to horse-trade now even more than they used to. It’s a lot more fun and more rewarding on the government side so any group that almost wins a majority is going to end up commanding one by enticing independents. From that majority group and in addition to the Ministers the Premier will then appoint parliamentary secretaries (new title for counsellor). These are basically Ministers-in-training, they will not do anything to upset their boss, so their votes are also taken for granted. On top of all that, because the Governor still chairs Cabinet (though he is not a member of it, with no say in what it decides), the current government decide everything in advance in private so they don’t have to air their laundry in front of the Governor. It’s called the Caucus and it includes the backbenchers too. All elected members of the government agree what they’re going to do or not do long before Cabinet even convenes to formally discuss. Hence Cabinet meetings are now very short and the Governor heralds this as efficient doing of business – the UK has no problem with there being a Cabinet-behind-the-Cabinet called Caucus apparently since after all we have almost complete domestic autonomy. So without more MPs, all bills of the ruling government will pass, every time, regardless of who wrote them, what’s in them, etc., and if there’s something that negatively affects the government but that the public wants the Parliament to do, Parliament will not do it. Is that what you want?
A collective body like a parliament that is meant to do the people’s business needs a lot of people in order to work. It’s common sense. Bermuda has 36 MPs for the same population. They’re paid a lot less though, and that’s the problem we have – we can’t pay that many people a minimum of 120k a year for a very part-time job. We need to switch to the system that Bermuda and the UK use where you get a good but not great base salary for being a mere part-time backbencher, and an uplift package depending on the further role you hold. Then we could have more MPs and Parliament could actually function. In particular, a Parliament with more MPs would have voted its current Speaker out of office, as should have happened. More MPs = more MPs who are distanced from the government = more MPs free to act on their consciences/public demands for action = better representation for everyone.
I know it’s hard to stomach but we actually need more MPs. If you disagree or want to downvote, please tell me why you disagree.
This is a very good take
I appreciate that coming from you. You will note that where I referred to Caucus deciding in advance what will or won’t happen, it is Parliament as well as Cabinet that ends up not carrying out its deliberative and decision-making functions effectively.
Why do you think people disagree with me? Is it because, if you don’t understand what collective responsibility means for example, my take just sounds like an excuse to create more overpaid underworked representatives with public cash? Because that is not my idea. My idea is to pay less if you are only a backbencher, but have more of them so you weaken the government. In other words, adjust the system so that in order to govern unopposed, you need a commanding majority so you can afford to lose members of your own side to the persuasion of the much larger number of opposition members who might be making good points.
I’m Caymanian but I lived a few different places during my education, and in my experience the average person could wrap their head around points like those I’m making. That doesn’t seem to be the case here.
As usual, lazy downvotes with no counter-argument. Anyone?
More people taking a huge salary for barely working is not what this island needs. Not enough people. What needs to happen is eliminating anything but a popular vote islands wide. Everyone should vote for the islands representation.
05/01/2021 at 9:46 am –
Every. Single. Point you have made above.
This is how is SHOULD be!!
Seriously. This needs to be a viewpoint.
I wish the governor would read comments. He has said nothing about what’s going on up in here. He seems pretty useless…
9:46. Salaries were set by the DG and Governor but that was changed by the Parliament Management Act.
We elected Parliamentarians because we trusted them. You mean you can’t trust the people you voted for to not abuse public funds.
Time for Caymanians to have faith in their own.
“You mean you can’t trust the people you voted for to not abuse public funds”
How does one even begin to respond to this!
And now even the expats should know what “honorable for life” means in Caymanian.
And while the next Premier and MPs will get salary increases, they will make civil servants take a salary cut in 2022
This doesnt make sense
Who needs sex with the way this Government f@%#’$ us! No sah!!
The severence is pure financial rape of the people of Cayman. It’s amazing how these politicians self-righteously go to church every Sunday… where they get their weekly sermon on morality… then they go right back to screwing the people on Monday morning.
Well, their version of morality is only as it relates to the homosexual kind. If it’s not that, they gone clear.
“oh unna didn’t want me back in office? Well each and every 30k of unna voters going pay me a dolla to leave.”
As Max would say, even Blind Bartimaeus could see….
crooked as crooked & corrupt as possible can be! vote them all out! but vote in the new group on a limit term basis ( 2×4 year terms) then change the lot of them again…perhaps that is the process needed to halt this total lack of respect towards the electorate our country and blatant environment of corruption.
If an MP runs and is not voted back in, does that not mean he was ‘fired’ by his constituents? If you fire someone in the private sector, they are NOT ENTITLED to severance… Double standards??
Severance Pay: Under the Labour Law (2011 Revision) all employees who have continually worked for their employer for more than a year are entitled to receive severance pay if their employment is terminated for any reason other than for misconduct and poor performance, at a rate of one weeks’ salary for every completed year of service.
…….
It is well past time that MLAs MPs receive benefits similar to the average constituent and not be such greedy pigs!
Corruption,
War criminals(CIG) funding cartels and powerful people in the world.
Few people understand the level of corruption in Cayman.
Millions, Billions of dollars moved every day and no one bats and eye on where(who) it’s going.
Anyone born in the 80s and down have been bought and sold in CIG.
Greed, lust, envy will be our down fall.
2021 We rise!
Every parliament member is a criminal and a coward who has no integrity or honesty.
It seems these traits run long in their families and ancestors.
Why expect anything different from them.
In fairness, there isn’t much selection by design. The pond of candidates is kept murky, shallow, and stagnant. There are really still only two leadership capable parties as options. Both enjoy, and bet on, the continued ignorance and apathy of Caymanian voters, and are never disappointed. Having not driven amendments to the Elections Law, we are stuck with two identically self-serving klepto-alliances of low-quality, barely solvent, ego-driven, principle-deficient actors. Our system is rigged to reshuffle these alternating self-approving Cabinets every four years – even when both parties loose, like last time. It will be the same in May 2021, with some well-known ghouls from Traffic and Summary Courts past, already rubbing their hands together in excited expectation of the next windfall Port deal.
OMG!
ALDEN MCLAUGHLIN and AUSTIN HARRIS take the allowance and STILL DO NOT HAVE AN OFFICE. Where is that money going? Straight in their pockets. Constituents have nowhere to go to see their representative. Shameful fraudulent disgrace.
As PomPom would say dats how we like mannn
Lets just make sure they get it
Lots of them have the mentally in a couple months we will forget. They are going to need it because some of the stalwarts are going.
Lol
Ga squeeze out that last 30k because they know tons of people WELL fed up with them.
btw here’s some math:
10K for 4 years = $480k, 30k severance is 6.25% or an additional $625 per month.
It just proves MPs are out of touch with locals and don’t care if families can’t have food on table! Vote out these greedy MPs!
You know how I always say “pick you battles”? This is well and truly a battle to pick!
Alden McLauglin – NO SHAME
McKeeva Bush – NO SHAME
Moses Kirkconnell – NO SHAME
Roy McTaggart – NO SHAME
Joey Hew – NO SHAME
Juliana O’Connor-Connolly – NO SHAME
Tara Rivers – NO SHAME
Dwayne Seymour – NO SHAME
Barbara Connolly – NO SHAME
David Wight – NO SHAME
Eugene Ebanks – NO SHAME
Austin Harris – NO SHAME
Arden McLean – NO SHAME
Alva Suckoo – NO SHAME
Chris Saunders – NO SHAME
Anthony Eden – NO SHAME
Bernie Bush – NO SHAME
Kenneth Bryan – NO SHAME
Their silence about Speaker Bush’s conviction says everything about them individually and collectively as leaders of the country. The burying their head in the sand mentality is unacceptable. It is clear they are a large part of Cayman’s problem and must not be allowed to continue in any leadership role as they lack the qualities we need e.g. morals, ethics, decency, integrity and ability to do the right thing for Cayman.
Now they can go unchecked and give themselves large financial rewards from the public purse for doing public service or doing a poor job of managing the affairs of the islands with a severance package the average citizen they have been elected to represent can only dream about. This is shocking and speaks volumes about their motives and integrity. The madness must stop. Who are they accountable to when they make up all the rules and perks?
What more evidence is required after this latest mess to conclude they are all unfit for public service? Time vote out all the cowards in 2021.
… but VOTE THEM ALL OUT. It is still my opinion that we must ignore their party BS. Let us look at people’s ethics and professional track record; if they hold themselves accountable for their personal and professional life, then we can give them a chance, but the old guard has got to go. We do not need new and grandiose projects – we need to complete the big ones these dinosaurs undertook umpteen years ago!
We need to overhaul public servants too; some of the people heading these authorities and ministries have no organizational skills and are totally clueless at managing people, resources and money. At this rate, they will bankrupt us again.
To be fair, Water Authority does an excellent job on their own.
I don’t like their minister at ALL, though.
But yet there was no public money to give citizens financial help and instead let people dip into their retirement funds. Disgusting and self serving.
Not a word from Roper….thought not.
What a SHAME this bunch including opposition is to this country. Think tooting horn about prosperity and C19 will get you through next election. WE will make you remember the morning after election this action you took.
5.04am The British Govt is committed not to interfere in internal self government. Get that through your thick head, and stop blaming The governor for your corrupt “House of Parliament” and all the Caymanian voters that elected this band of self serving robbers.
It’s called corruption. Who exactly proposed adding the three months severance pay? That individual needs to be unmasked.
Most likely Austin. Can’t count on West Bayers to wote out keke, so he definitely didn’t have this no income worry. There is quite a toss up of which one was the most useless so we may never know.
corruption
Wow! You can’t make this $hit up!
Does this happen for politicians anywhere else in the world? We need to vote every single one out that voted for this come May.
Imagine Ezzard was a part of it and run his mouth about corruption. They care to line their pockets more than representing our interest. Lets get them out.
I predict there will be 65-70 persons vying for the 19 seats of Parliament this election.
What are we STUPID. The ordinary Cayman gets two week for every year. Please never talk about corruption again. This is what you do to your own people? Shame, Shame, SHAME.
It does, actually. It happens in the UK for one.
This lot are all shameless and deserve to be voted out for lining their own pockets at our expense while they screw up Cayman
They will have to give the severance back if they succesfully run again in four years?
Agreed. The labour law they forced on us to be laid off without severance if we sought employment elsewhere should be equally applied to them. They are being laid off for 4 years. And if they want severance, they agree to never seeking employment as MP or any other govt official again.
Paid to win and paid to lose.
DisneyWorld has nothing on the magical adventure that awaits in Absurdistan.
This shows the motley crew is afraid they can’t buy these elections and are simply building backup backdoor plans to pad their overdrawn millionaire lifestyles one last time, at our expense. The voters are tired of all the corntoe stepping!!!
The party of Government “Who”nity best be on watch. The same electors they scorned since 2017 for deep pocket sugar daddies, royal connections, overbitten money grabs, handouts and grandiose tourism and business promises are the same electors that will be handing out pink slips this May.
The heist is now public knowledge, and the awoken sleeping bear is not happy.
Better clean up your CVs and learn what minimum wage buys like the rest of us.
P.S. Not much these days.
“Got a conviction? Come this way, my friend. Have I got a job for you!”
CNS: cross-reference the salary grades in the Schedule to the Law to the civil service salary grade chart. Grade A, Point 5 + $5,000/month allowance = CI$262,536 for the Premier, for example. Also note that a brand new backbencher at Grade D, Point 1 earns CI$121,212 – that’s the minimum.
http://gazettes.gov.ky/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/12910480.PDF
And here I am slaving away for less than quarter of their salary…the great divide
Yup. When you get five-digit salary deposits, life is good.
This is just the beginning. They voted for no oversight of what they get up to – that was the biggest bonus they gave themselves.
What do you mean “oversight”? There’s never been any oversight that they paid attention to anyway. I doubt they know what that word really means.
Alden McLaughlin and McKeeva Bush are self serving greedy dishonorable men that are buying political support from other MP’s with pubic funds. This government are all focused on doing whatever it takes to get theirs and feeding all the other piglets at the trough. Cayman has become a banana republic under the leadership of both men. They are the same type of poor leader and human being.
A number of them are already double dipping. Guess that justifies triple dipping.
Guess we now know how many of them think that they have a good chance of losing in May.
To which party ghouls of yesteryear will they be loosing, because it’s a really low bar, and restricted field at this point. Will DUI Rolston take WBS? Will Dr “who-shot-my-leg” McField sweep Red Bay? It’s pretty bad when the perennial losers start looking like better options.
Just goes to prove how eternally Honourable they are.
Are they exempt from the FOI Law too?
I think the 3 months severance pay is reasonable, that’s what the private sector and most people get and to be honest, Who is going to offer a losing politician a job ? That doesn’t happen very often in Cayman.
Are you kidding me??!!! They all have fallbacks with the people whose interests they’ve been promoting- eg- Alden will be back at a law firm, Tara will be back at a law firm, Kurt retired one of the richest (because he knew who paid well while in office). Fork that. We have kids without food!!!!! We have schools that can’t be completed!!! F every one of these corrupt politicians
You’re right about the kids without food, incomplete school buildings and remember to add unperforming public schools. Only 1 government school was rated good. 80% of Caymanian children are attending schools that have not met the expected standard.
http://oes.gov.ky/portal/page/portal/esahome/publications/annual-reports/Annual Report 20201
I know they’ll talk about COVID-19 and progress takes time, give it some time, etc. I hope you all remember the baseline reports when Tara was Minister of Education.
http://www.education.gov.ky/portal/page/portal/mehhome/education/baseline-inspections-reports
Action needs to be taken. Why are the schools failing? Why are the students failing? BTW, you can’t ask the powers that be these questions because they’ll get offended.
Our representatives are hired on a fixed term contract for 4 years. Voting themselves a severance package for getting turfed out for doing a shi@#y job is abusive.
Seems fair to me. Nothing to see here.