The Shaw Trust paid out £915,000 in severance payments during 2009/10 to 15 employees who earned salaries of £60,000 or more, its latest annual report reveals.

The ‘emoluments’ table on page 30 of the report shows that one employee was paid a total package, including salary, bonuses, benefits-in-kind, car allowance, payments in lieu of notice and redundancy, of between £210,000 and £220,000.

Two people took home total packages, including severance payments, of £190,000 to £200,000, and one person each was paid between £170,000 and £180,000, and £130,000 to £140,000.

The charity confirmed to Civil Society that in total, 15 employees whose total emoluments exceeded £60,000 did receive redundancy and/or payments in lieu of notice, and the total amount of these payments was £915,000. This was a large jump from the year before, when just £95,000 was paid out in severance payments.

The Trust declined to provide details of which staff were made redundant and why.  A spokeswoman said: “Not all of these were senior staff and we do not think it appropriate for specific information regarding the emoluments of individuals to be placed in the public domain.

“The reasons that the individual staff members were made redundant are varied.”

When chief executive Sally Burton (pictured) joined the Trust in late 2009, she instigated a new strategy and set about hiring lots of new talent in the top team. When Civil Society interviewed her in February 2010, she had already moved former retail director Nick Mason into a new role of director of business and performance and made Stuart Knowles, previously in charge of programmes as director of employment, the new chief operating officer.  But several key roles remained filled by interims; chief financial officer, commercial director, director of workforce and organisational development and head of retail.  Most of these appointments were made by June last year.

The Shaw Trust had record income during the year of £96.6m, up from £81m the previous year.  It employed 2,552 people (averaged throughout the year), virtually unchanged from 2009 (2,562 staff).  However, its wages bill rose significantly – from £47.5m in 2009 to £53.7m in 2010.

For the third year running, the Trust featured in the Top 100 Employers Guide sponsored by the Corporate Research Foundation. It was also ranked 41st in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index, up six places from the year before.