Council workers get two days extra pay for using the lift

Council workers are being paid an extra two days' salary a year in travel expenses - for standing in a lift.

Staff at Rochdale Council's Municipal Office dishes out thousands each year for claims of up to five minutes for employees travelling each day from the entrance of the building - known as the black box - to their desks.

So, during a standard 36-hour week, staff are allotted 25 minutes lift time, meaning they only have to spend 35 hours and 35 minutes working. Over the course of a year this adds up to almost 20 hours - well over two working days - when they are effectively being paid for using the lift.

The system was introduced more than 20 years ago when staff complained of waits of up to 10 minutes to catch a lift. They claimed they were being unfairly penalised after walking through the front doors on time but clocking in on their own floors late.

Since then the lifts have been updated and the waits are a thing of the past, but the system has remained the same.

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