Bill for jobless officials costs Amsterdam €1.5m

Amsterdam city council spent over €1.5m paying special unemployment benefit to former council executives in 2009, local tv news station AT5 said on Thursday.

AT5 obtained the information using freedom of information laws.
In total, 32 former council executive board members were claiming the benefit for former politicians, at an average of €52,000 each.
The benefit system, known as wachtgeld, entitles politicians who resign or lose their jobs to more than 70% of the salary for up to six years, and they are under no compulsion to apply for other work.
The merger of the city’s 14 borough councils into seven is likely to add to the total bill, as dozens of local officials lose their jobs.
‘It is high time former council executives face the same as other people who become redundant,’ local Socialist Party leader Andre Krouwel told the broadcaster.