Oracle February 2010
Editorial
As we start a new decade, PCS members in HMRC are already facing huge challenges. It is clear that pressure from PCS members has led to limited changes to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme proposals, but planned changes would still result in a significant detriment to the bulk of our members if they were made redundant after March 2011 as the £50,000 cap is £7843 lower than three years pay at the current AO max.
The 13th January announcements that made over 1700 staff in 130 offices surplus mean that large numbers of HMRC members are now on a road which could end with compulsory redundancy. With an election due and all major parties talking about further cuts, HMRC’s willingness to fund departures now on existing terms shows how much more vulnerable members will be once defined voluntary terms are gone and compulsory terms are cheaper.
January 2010 is the fourth anniversary of the first bulk declarations of pre-surplus status which hit staff in processing units as the department started shifting work to strategic centres. This marked the emergence of the plans for large scale centralisation which led to workforce change decisions to close over 200 offices and ultimately to 1700 people facing redundancy during the worst economic downturn in living memory. Many are in offices where accommodation is cheaper than in the large cities that the department favours, and they continue to do valuable work for HMRC that would not otherwise be done. The equality impact assessment of workforce change shows that a high proportion of staff ‘stranded’ are long serving staff, mostly at AA & AO, with a significant majority being female. Many have disabilities. Many have caring responsibilities. Many remain stranded because few, if any, alternative vacancies exist in the civil service in locations that they can get to. As a result, the course that HMRC has taken in making large numbers surplus risks triggering civil service wide action if they move to making staff compulsorily redundant or try to move people outside of RDT. That point is likely to come after the election when we will know just how big future cuts could be. The 1700 are the first made surplus by HMRC, but current signs are that they won’t be the last.
2010 has started with major battles ahead. Members will need to stand together, supporting action if needed, to defend our futures in the face of cuts now and cuts to come.
Lorna Merry
President’s column
I want to start my column by sending my best wishes to those members who have recently been transferred from the Revenue & Customs group into that covering the UK Border Agency (Home Office group). Over the last few years I have witnessed the strong support from those members for PCS. I am sure that the commitment demonstrated by local and branch representatives will continue to stand in good stead for the future.
It is also my first opportunity to congratulate Mark Serwotka on his re-election to serve as our General Secretary for the next five years following an overwhelming membership ballot endorsement. His strong leadership will prove invaluable in what will continue to be difficult times ahead. The defence of the civil service compensation scheme against government proposals will prove to be a priority in the immediate months to come.
That campaign links very closely with our continuing opposition to job losses and the office closure programme in HMRC. There is no doubt that a cheaper redundancy package will make it easier for the department to achieve their misguided workforce change proposals. Your group executive committee (GEC) is resolved to ensure that the success so far of no compulsory redundancies nor move of home remain at the forefront of its campaigning work to keep a local office network and reverse the unwarranted cull of jobs in HMRC.
That campaign is wholly re-enforced by our tax justice work forming an integral part of influencing the main political parties in the run up to the general election. I find it incredible that a budget may be imminently presented to parliament in which tackling the financial recession will centre on cutting public services. Yet there continues to be a headlong rush to cut jobs in the very department where over £100 billion is lost each year to the exchequer through tax avoidance, evasion and non-payment.
May I finally urge you to attend your branch annual general meeting (AGM) which will be taking place shortly. Details of the date, time and venue are available from your local PCS representative. The Revenue & Customs group annual report is being circulated so that you can read how your negotiators have dealt with issues during 2009. It is your opportunity to listen to and question a guest speaker who is accountable on behalf of your union leadership. This is also your chance to influence the creating of the union’s policies for the next twelve months. Details on how this can be done are shown elsewhere in this magazine (p7 –Ed). Time off is allowed to attend and there is no doubt that a good turn out at the AGM influences the ability for a successful campaigning agenda which is so important for the future of PCS in HMRC.
Dave Bean
Group secretary’s column
HMRC formally confirmed its plans to close 130 offices a few weeks ago. Although members in those offices have known for a long time that they were due to close, the confirmation comes as a hard blow, particularly to those members and activists who continue to campaign to save local offices.
What is different about these announcements is that HMRC has now set out how it proposes to close those offices. There have been a number of early release schemes in the past two years, but in its determination to press ahead with these particular office closures HMRC has decided that its only option is to spend vast amounts of money by offering compulsory severance terms. It is a measure of the department’s desperation that the money, and the will, has now been found to entice members to leave a department, which we believe is already understaffed, on the most generous terms available. It is also a testament to the strength of the agreements we have with both the government and directly with HMRC, that compulsory redundancies and compulsory moves outside RDT have so far been avoided.
These agreements themselves came, of course, as a direct result of the pressure placed on the government and the department by PCS members, through vigorous campaigning efforts, political lobbying and the threat of industrial action. It is in the context of these agreements that members who are pre-surplus and have been offered the voluntary redundancy package should bear in mind that they have a choice. Whilst the choices will be decidedly limited, placing many members and their families in an invidious position, the terms of the agreements place the onus squarely on the department to work with your union to find solutions which avoid compulsory redundancies or moves.
Nor should the campaigning to save offices cease. PCS maintains that HMRC’s job cuts programme is politically motivated, based on arbitrary and ultimately unworkable assumptions and damaging to both the public and the local communities which HMRC purports to serve. The union therefore remains absolutely opposed to job cuts and office closures, and our representation to government and department will be on this basis.
The department also know that if any member is compelled to leave the civil service or to move outside RDT then this will lead to immediate consideration of industrial action, not just in HMRC but across the civil service. This is the line that PCS has drawn and across which no civil service employer has so far been prepared to cross. We sincerely trust that HMRC will not be the first civil service department to test the strength of our resolve to act.
The current terms being offered within HMRC are under the terms of the current, more favourable, civil service compensation scheme. If the government’s proposed changes to the CSCS are allowed to take effect this will undoubtedly pave the way for an escalation of the job cuts programme and may well make the option of compulsory redundancy increasingly attractive to HMRC. All members are therefore urged to continue to support the campaign against cuts in the CSCS, attend the meetings held where you work, and support any action that is called.
Peter Lockhart
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