Scottish independence: after the vote, the challenges

We’re now on the eve of the referendum for whether or not Scotland should be an independent country, and as it has gotten closer the debate has gotten ever more heated. The opinion polls are so close, and so volatile, that it’s a brave gambler who puts big money on one or the other outcome.

Regardless of the result, though, once the referendum is done there are big challenges ahead. For those of us in PCS, there are organisational questions that we need to answer both within the workplace and within the union. This article is an attempt to explore those questions, though it makes no claims to a definitive answer. That’s for all PCS members to determine, through debates at Conference and activity in branches.

Oppose privatisation with action, not just words

In the latest update on jobs in Benefits & Credits, there is a section which discusses the latest exercise in privatising HMRC – the euphemistic Error and Fraud ‘Adding Capacity’ (EFAC) exercise:

Following on from last years [sic] trial B&C are going ahead with a live date (currently) 1 September of involving a private sector company Consentrix [sic] to deliver error and fraud work in B&C. This is expected to last until July 2017.

PCS have reiterated our opposition to this, preferring to have a proper fully resourced department to deliver this work, and are currently writing to management outlining our proposals as per instructed in motions 26 and 27 of R&C Group Conference 2014.
The private company are externally recruiting 650 staff, 330 who are currently undergoing training and another 320 who will commence training on 1 September.

All staff will have CRB checks (at the moment 240 of the original 330 have them) and management have assured us that no one without the relevant security checks will have access to HMRC details.

The local branch in Northern Ireland are currently carrying out H&S checks on the building that staff will work in during the project particularly to protect around 45 HMRC staff acting as mentors and floorwalkers.

Although PCS is opposed to the project we do recognise that we have an obligation to ensure that workers in Concentrix are organised and recruited to PCS in order to protect themselves and our members. We will be working with the commercial sector, the HMRC organiser and local branches to determine the best way of achieving this while maintaining our opposition to privatisation of public services as a concept.

10 July, 14 October – and then?

[Update: this post was originally published before PCS confirmed its national strike date as 15 October. However, even with that one day of action now in the past, the points about strategy remain valid for the future.]

A number of unions have announced that they will be going out again over pay on 14 October as a follow up to 10 July. This has led to rumours among members that PCS will be taking action on the same date. The National Executive Committee has yet to confirm this, though not doing so seems unlikely. But what should we be doing in the national campaign?

Jobs & Staffing: where did the campaign go?

After the most recent tranche of rolling strike action, the GEC announced that action short of strike would then be used to ramp up the pressure on the employer. A good call, and a way to maintain momentum without lots of sporadic one day strikes. Except that it hasn’t actually happened.

True enough, we’ve got an indefinite overtime ban and an indefinite work to rule (erroneously labelled as a good work strike), but there’s been no escalation whatsoever.

The overtime ban, after being dropped when we were falsely told that the Enabling Agreement of 2012 won us all the things we’re in fact still fighting for in the Jobs & Staffing Campaign, has been ongoing for a long time already. The only difference is that instead of being renewed for short periods in fits and starts, it’s now on til we win – as it should have been already.

The arrogance of ExCom

“Performance Management is here to say.”

So says Lin Homer, at every possible opportunity, especially in the face of staff and the union pointing out that it’s an ineffective and highly discriminatory system. But while the cynics may have argued that the reason it was “here to stay” was because Homer was blindly parroting Tory ideology while abetting their attacks on civil servants, we know now that they were wrong.

It’s also here to stay because she gets a hefty bonus out of the whole rotten charade.

Your Voice’s first AGM – Friday 18 July

Your Voice, the new group for PCS members who want a rank-and-file led, fighting union in HMRC, is holding its first Annual General Meeting on Friday 18 July in Liverpool.

Your Voice emerged as a grouping earlier this year, as a challenge to the incumbent Left Unity faction. This followed a dismal year in which Conference policies were not followed and attacks by the employer were not effectively challenged while disillusionment among the wider membership grew. Our aim was to stop the rot, restore power to the membership and give the fight against cuts in HMRC a much needed boot up the arse.

With the Jobs & Staffing Campaign now finally underway, the coming year looks a lot better than the last. But we’re not ones for complacency, and there remains a need for greater organisation amongst the membership not only to assert our interests against the employer, but to hold the Group Executive Committee to account too. No genuinely democratic organisation should fear this intent.

If you’re not a member of Your Voice already, but have supported our aims and actions, then now is the time to get involved. Contact us for more information.

Transport will be arranged from Liverpool City Centre to the venue.

A pooled fare will operate, so please bring your receipts to the meeting.

Your Voice AGM – Friday 18 July, 2 til 6pm
The Stuart Pub, 76 Bedford Road, Walton, L5 4QX (map)

Day two of Conference not as raucous, just as vital

Day two of Revenue & Customs Group Conference opened with the debate on the Jobs & Staffing Campaign. This saw motions moved by the Group Executive Committee and by those pesky kids in Bootle Taxes Branch.

The GEC motion was straightforward enough, in essence affirming the aims and strategy that they had already agreed for the Jobs & Staffing Campaign. More vital was the Bootle motion, penned by a member of Your Voice, which was about keeping control of the dispute in members’ hands and safeguarding against a sell out. Naturally, the GEC tried to oppose it.

Your Voice sets the agenda at first day of R&C Group Conference

The first day of the Revenue & Customs Group Conference was not a quiet one. It was a long and full day of business, whose highlights included delegates led by members of Your Voice giving the Group Executive Committee an absolute hiding.

Arriving in Brighton the previous day, there was some outcry over the fact that the Standing Orders Committee had retroactively ruled motions which called for ballots as ‘out of order’ if the issues that they addressed came under the remit of the Jobs & Staffing Campaign. However it soon became clear that this was as a result not of the SOC’s machinations, as the self-styled Masters of the Dark Arts had resolved to give branches the Conference that they wanted but were under pressure from the Group Executive Committee.

GEC election results: collapse of right wing and challenge from the left evident despite Left Unity win

The results are now in and the Revenue & Customs Group have a new Group Executive Committee.

Left Unity this year extended their majority on the GEC, finally taking the President and Treasurer positions which have eluded them for a while. But while this may not be a particular surprise, it is at the same time no endorsement of the GEC’s conduct over the past year and comes in the context of declining turnout.

This year, there were 44 candidates for the GEC compared to 35 last year. Yet the turnout in the ballot dropped from 16% to 13%.

Lorna Merry got 267 less votes this year and ended up as President. Margi Rathbone got 1,071 less votes and still retains the Deputy Group Secretary position. Hamish Drummond was the top polling Assistant Group Secretary this year with 3,088 which would not have got an AGS position in 2013 despite there being one more position available. This year’s top polling ordinary GEC candidate got 2,805 votes, whilst last year’s got 4,018 and last year’s bottom polling elected candidate would have topped the list this year.

Where next for Your Voice?

Election season is almost over. The GEC election results will be announced this week and we will know whether this first ad hoc attempt to challenge the incumbents has made a dent, or whether a more systematic approach is needed to beat the well oiled electoral machine that is Left Unity.

In either case, Your Voice isn’t going away. Not very long ago, we emerged as an informal grouping of people fed up with the way that things have been going in R&C Group and trying to effect change. With the election out of the way, it’s time to look at regrouping and becoming something more effective and more cohesive.

How we do that and how we orient ourselves is a debate that still needs to be had. One thing that those already involved agree on is that we need to be as democratic and free of internal hierarchy as possible – in contrast to the Left Unity model of central command and control.