WILTSHIRE Council has spent more than half a million pounds on gagging ex-employees since it was created in 2009.

The council has silenced 33 former staff members with gagging orders totalling £530,304.00 during this time, costing an average of £16,000 a person.

The orders, otherwise known as confidentiality clauses, are usually agreed when an employee leaves an employer, having been made redundant or after a disagreement in the workplace.

The figures, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, showed that in 2011 Wiltshire Council paid £233,173.24 in settlements to only seven members of staff.

Although other councils have spent much more than Wiltshire, the practice has been heavily criticised by councillors as out of place for public sector employers.

Councillor Pat Aves said: “It is a pretty grim thing to hear. Big business do it all the time. Is the Wiltshire Council like a big business now?

“The whole process is questionable and you have to ask yourself about the integrity of both people doing it; the givers and receivers.

“It is like saying you do not trust the person to keep quiet and you have to wonder why and what they are hiding."

On signing a contract the employee waives their right to legal action, such as a claim for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal.

Most of these agreements also include confidentiality clauses, which stop employees talking publicly or to the press about their former employer of the circumstances under which they left.

“I remember when people were made redundant but you do not think what they know and what they have been paid for,” added Cllr Aves.

“I am really surprised to hear this and it is not a little bit disturbing that people are being paid to keep quiet for things.

“That such a small amount of people have been given such a large amount of money is disturbing. It is just a waste of money and they are already short of cash.”

A Wiltshire Council spokesman said: “The council uses these agreements infrequently.

“In all cases, the settlement agreement has been used to end the employment relationship, and in some cases the agreement has been proposed by the employee.

"In all cases the statutory code of practice on settlement agreements has been taken into account."