No-one working on a fixed health service contract should earn more than €247,000 a year and interim directors should be limited to a maximum €332,500, health service chiefs have decided.

The Volkskrant reports on Wednesday that the salary code, agreed by the health service directors organisation and various supervisory bodies, will be put to members today. Last year efforts to put a €220,000 ceiling on health service pay failed.
The paper says it is unclear if interim directors will agree to the pay limits or the one-year maximum. ‘But there are enough qualified people who will do the job without excessive pay packets,’ Jacques Gerards, of the health service supervisory body association told the paper.
Earlier this year it emerged that an interim manager at one healthcare company in Limburg was earning €600,000 through the Boer & Croon advisory group. There have also been several instances of directors leaving with several hundred thousand euros in golden handshakes.
The new code sets a maximum of €190,000 – the prime minister’s salary next year – for smaller institutions with up to a 30% bonus for the heads of bigger organisations.
Interim managers can earn 175% of the Balkenende standard because they have to pay for their own pensions and may end up without a salary when between two jobs.
The paper says the average salary of the 11,000 or so health service managers is €135,000.