PAY rises for staff with salaries of more than pounds 90,000 working at the Assembly Commission will be handed out - despite the UK Government's pay freeze.
The increases will be implemented this year and next at the corporate body responsible for running the National Assembly in Cardiff Bay.
Around 300 employees have received a 1.4% risebackdatedtoApril,andwill receiveanother 1% next year following an unannounced decision by the Commission.
A report has recently appeared on a Commission agenda paper outlining the terms of the deal.
A spokesman for the Assembly Commission said: "Like many parts of the public sector we negotiate our pay and remuneration packages locally. Negotiations with the Assembly trade unions began in March and concluded in May.
"The offer was made at a time when average earnings across the UK had risen by 1.4% over the previous year. As part of the agreed settlement this package comes in conjunction with the pounds 80,000 per annumsaving that will bemade as a result of the decision to phase out anumber of staff allowances.
"The settlementwas agreed in advance of the UK Government's announcement of a pay freeze for the public sector."
The report, the recommendations of which were confirmed by the Commission earlier this month, sets out a series of reasons based on the Assembly's "Reward Strategy"why the pay rise should be awarded.
The document says that special allowances applying to 20 members of staff will be ended. Staff earning up to pounds 91,526 are entitled to receive the pay rise.
Confirming that AMs had also received a pay rise, the spokesman said: "The Sir Roger Jones Independent Panel [on the remuneration and expenses of AMs] recommended that AMs' pay be uplifted in line with inflation. The Commission chose theAverage Earnings Index as an indicator."
Last October the then Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling ordered a pay freeze for top public sector earners, including senior civil servants, members of the judiciary, senior NHS managers, GPs and chief executives of quangos.
After the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition came to power, the freeze was greatly extended. In his Emergency Budget last month, Chancellor George Osborne said public sector workers would have pay frozen for two years, except for 1.7 million earning less that pounds 21,000 who would receive a pounds 250 increase in both years.
Responding to news of the Assembly Commission pay rise, Taxpayers' Alliance spokeswoman Fiona McEvoy said: "It's completely inappropriate that while staff in the public and private sector are facing pay cuts and redundancies these bureaucrats are being insulated from economic reality.
"With huge pressure on public finances taxpayers simply cannot afford generous pay rises for these Assembly staff."
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