London's 2 top public health officials were paid almost $900K last year
CBC
London's medical officer of health and his deputy were paid almost $900,000 last year, racking up more than 1,500 hours of overtime between them.
The Middlesex-London Health Unit released its annual list of employees who made more than $100,000 a year, as is required by the province.
The so-called Sunshine List lists the salary of Dr. Chris Mackie, who resigned from the health unit's top post earlier this month, as $468,800 in 2021. Dr. Alex Summers, who was the associate medical officer of health last year but has since been promoted to Mackie's job, earned just shy of $416,000 in 2021, the documents show.
Mackie worked 681 hours of overtime last year, worth about $106,000, and Summers worked 840 hours of overtime, worth just under $103,000, said Matt Reid, the chair of the health unit's board of directors.
"These numbers are reflective of the hours worked. The government has indicated to individuals in public health that they should be keeping track of the overtime and that the provincial government would be funding that," Reid told CBC News.
"What it's really reflective of is how busy 2021 was with the vaccination campaigns and all of the increased workload that occurred."
Also included in the 2021 numbers are some hours that weren't included in the 2020 numbers because of retroactive pay given by the province, Reid said.
In November and December 2020, Mackie worked 140 hours of overtime and Summers worked 145 hours of overtime in that time period.
"Between November 2020 and the end of 2021, there's an extremely high amount of overtime worked because of the pandemic," Reid said. "It's reflective of the fact that Dr. Mackie was really doing the work of two people, and then later, Dr. Summers was doing the work of two people."
The overtime money is a statutory, contractual obligation that is paid by the province, Reid added.
"It's not really within the health unit's discretion, it's not based on performance or a bonus. It's truly just compensating them for the hours that they've worked."
The listed salaries do not include any money paid to Mackie as a result of his leaving the health unit in early March 2022.
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