Pandemic overtime meant a large bill was due for the Middlesex-London Health Unit.
The health unit’s 2021 Sunshine List, which shows salaries of people earning more than $100,000 in the public sector, was released this week and showed despite not being on the job from October through the end of the year, the region’s former Medical Offer of Health Dr. Chris Mackie was paid $468,800.
Mackie resigned from the Health Unit earlier this month, amid allegations of workplace misconduct that were first reported by London News Today.
Meantime, Dr. Alex Summers, who took over for Mackie on an interim basis in October and then permanently took on the job in the days following Mackie’s resignation, was paid $415,961.
Emily Williams, the health unit’s CEO, collected a salary of $187,609.
Her role was created in the summer of 2020, and she was hired into the position in February of 2021. Multiple sources told London News Today that the job was created so a person in management could act as an intermediary or buffer between Mackie and staff members he had created bad relationships with.
“The province sets the annual salary for the medical officer of health based on a provincial grid,” said Health Board Chair Matthew Reid, when asked about the high salaries for Mackie and Summers. “The local board of health does not set the compensation.”
Much of the salary comes from overtime payments, which are also set by the province, according to Reid.
“All of the increase above the base salary is for overtime caused by the pandemic,” Reid told London News Today. “The overtime has been tracked and paid by the provincial government.”
In 2020, Mackie made $414,926, despite the CEO portion of his role being removed halfway through the year.
Summers, who was the associate medical officer of health at the time, was paid $338,133.
Overall, there were 94 health unit employees on the Sunshine List in 2021, up from 63 in 2020.
