Richest union boss has pay cut
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Your support makes all the difference.GORDON TAYLOR, the highly paid head of the footballers' union, has taken a pay cut of pounds 1,000 a week despite rocketing wages among his millionaire members.
However, Mr Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), is still some distance from the breadline on a package worth pounds 370,000 a year, according to figures from the Government's certification officer. Mr Taylor's earnings are partly linked with television rights, which seemed to suffer a temporary blip.
The PFA chief will look with some envy at Alan Shearer, of Newcastle United, who is in the middle of negotiating his pounds 30,000 a week up to a reputed pounds 40,000, and David Beckham, of Manchester United, who last August signed a deal said to be worth pounds 7m over five years.
Less favoured players in the Premiership still make around pounds 4,000 a week.
According to the certification officer's annual report, Mr Taylor is still the highest paid union leader. In second place is Dr Ernest Armstrong, of the British Medical Association, on pounds 118,310. Third is Paul Snowball, of the banking union UNIFI, on pounds 104,133; fourth Christine Hancock, of the Royal College of Nursing, on pounds 99,500; and fifth Peter Smith, of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, on pounds 95,000.
Rodney Bickerstaffe, general secretary of the public services union Unison and champion of low-paid workers, received a package last year worth nearly pounds 84,000.
Arthur Scargill, president of the National Union of Mineworkers, has a package worth pounds 70,700, to lead a membership estimated at fewer than 6,000.
The lowest-paid officer is at the Scottish Union of Power Loom Technicians, with an honorarium of pounds 100.
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