Chief Fire Officer Remuneration in Keeping with Ministry Policy

A pay-out to staff across several departments in the Ministry in early 2018 was made in keeping with established HR policy to reduce the amount of accrued annual leave and comp time carried forward into a new budget year by its personnel. With the approval of the Deputy Governor, a total of 51 employees received payment for annual leave while 13 received pay-outs for comp time. This included senior staff, as well as emergency services and any other personnel meeting pre-determined criteria. Chief Hails was one of the individuals who had accumulated a significant amount of leave and comp time.

The Ministry of Home Affairs took this approach as there are a large number of emergency services personnel who regularly work outside their normal hours, or are unable to use their full annual leave entitlement due to situations beyond their control. With regards to the Fire Service in particular, the overall staff complement of the department is such that it was impractical for their leave balances to be reduced through time taken. The Ministry has committed to regularly monitoring its liability for comp time and leave accrual so that it is able to pro-actively take steps to keep these within reasonable limits.