Saturday, February 16, 2008

What A Clever Secretary

From The Age 16/02/08

POLICE union heavyweight Paul Mullett will walk away from his position as union secretary with a golden handshake worth almost $1.7 million.

Umm, excuse me? For those of you unfamiliar with Australian, or even Victorian politics, this man was once a  working policeman. For the last 20 years however, he's been "on secondment" from the force to the police union or "The Police Association", to use it's correct name.

He enjoyed a rather meteoric rise and became secretary almost 15 years ago. Throughout his time as an active member of the force and as secretary of the union, he has been dogged by accusations of bullying and misconduct, but despite all that, he's managed to remain in the top job, at $200,000 a year, ever since he gained it.

Recently however, the "OPI" or "Office of Police Integrity" ran an inquiry into police corruption. This caused two highly place individuals to resign after giving evidence concerning some of their taped phone conversations that also concerned Paul Mullett. Consequently Mr. Mullett stands accused of and will be charged with corruption for undermining a police murder investigation.

Now he's going to get a $1.68 million hand shake, which is more than double the super he'd have gotten had he resigned as a Senior-Sergeant, which is the actual rank that he holds, and after earning nearly three times the wage of the average snr-sgt for a very long time.

I don't know about you, but I think I can see an injustice in progress here...

5 Comments:

Donna said...

Hmm, my first suspicion is that Mr. Mullett has been taking lessons from the New Orleans Police
Dept., which "here" is notoriously
corrupt. ?? Or perhaps from some
U.S. member of Congress (like the one whom had thousands of $$ hidden in his fridge @ home, etc),
OR, even from some of George's cronies??? Like the illustrious US
Atty Genl., whom said he didn't know anything about why the 8 US District Attys were fired, when it was, by that time, proven that he did. Um, he wound up "resigning".

Yeah, something ALWAYS smells like
3 day old fish when someone decides to "retire" with a nice golden giftee-poo and the stench of
an attendant investigation is REAL
near by, doesn't it???

Dikkii said...

You know it's interesting, but in most contracts involving executives, there's usually a clause specifying that where the executive leaves for reasons involving criminal acts, they normally lose their entitlement to a severance package.

In companies that have unfunded defined benefit superannuation (rare trese days) they usually lose that as well.

Looks like the Police Union, of all organisations didn't insist on such terms. I find this extraordinary, given the pending charges.

Donna said...

Hmm... I just heard on the local news, here, I think, the other day that some head of a local police union or Police Benevolent group is
being investigated for some kind of
fraudulent money charges. Nothing like the "crook watcher" watching the bank accounts, is there???

Yes, you would think investigatory
agencies would be among the 1st to
put such clauses in THEIR contracts, but maybe they think/assume things like that won't happen "to them". Hmmm... better ask an insurance underwriter of any ilk about THAT
possibility.

Plonka said...

Donna:

There's no doubt about it, the closer the investigation, the greater the stink. But what really annoys me here is a Senior-Sergeant taking double his usual entitlement just because he's spent 15 years as a union ("teamster") thug, and a thug is what he is.

Dikki & Donna:

We can't do that, bank, telco, mining execs and politicians would miss out too if accountability was an option...

Donna said...

Oh, Ted, I forgot!! You're RUGHT.
We always forget that some "special" people are "exempt" from credibility/accountabtility, like the rest of us poor, honest fools.

There's a little thing I like to call "Unassisted Justice"- my own
"take" on the addage "what goes around, comes around." I've actually seen it happen couple of times in last 2 yrs or so. Oh, and
when it does, it is SO deserved!!

Speaking of the captains of the telco, mining, etc. industries. When Bernie Ebbers was found out to
have bankrupted his telecom co., guess where it was??? Hdqrts in Mississippi, U.S. and another BIG
campus near me. The mining disaster in Utah last yr where 8-12
miners were killed after the mine
shaft roof caved in? Uh, said mine
owner had been cited, repeatedly, for > 200 serious violations. I hope that moron (not the real word I WANT to use!) can live with himself after he COULD'VE fixed things and now all those kids have
NO dads. Oh, wait, I forgot. Mr. Mine Owner had to make $$ THAT day,
too!

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