ACT Justice Spokesman Stephen Franks says Wellingtonians are wrong to blame each other for the householders' money to sacked high fliers. There is blame due, but it is time the blame is better directed.

"Golden parachutes are now routine, and there will be plenty more to come. They represent double dipping by those who least need it at the expense of lower income home owners who can least afford it.

"Job security is part of the risk compensated by higher salaries. When a Chief Executive loses the confidence of his board the executive must go.

"The only compensation should be what has been expressly agreed in the contract, one month's salary, three month's whatever is agreed in advance.

"The blame of Wellington people should be directed at the deliberate decision by the Labour ministers. Ministers decided to override term contracts, and to support the interference of the Employment Court in dismissals of high fliers. They let them to continue to use rights first intended for poorer people who were felt unable to be trusted to settle their own employment contracts.

"Mr Mallard vowed to put a stop to leaving bonuses for top civil servants. But in the end the Employment Relations Act put the cards back in the hands of the high earners. Any high flier with a bit of imagination can find some procedural hoop that the employer has not jumped through, notwithstanding Ms Rankin's disappointment in the Employment Court.

"We will all be better off when high fliers are no longer enticed, and employers no longer forced, to subject themselves to the lawyers and the Employment Court whenever one is disappointed by the other.

"ACT will end these proceedings, which elevate claims to a spurious justice that should never have been encouraged," Stephen Franks said.

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