Privatisation – it’s past time to fight dirty

Yesterday (8 May) HMRC has announced that private “outsourcing solutions” company Concentrix has been awarded a contract. They will be taking on Error and Fraud work in the Benefits & Credits directorate as part of a retrenchment of the department’s “adding capacity” trial.

For all the spin from directors, there should be no mistake that this is about privatisation and replacing jobs. Benefits & Credits is second only to Personal Tax in terms of the attacks levelled at it by HMRC senior management, and the fact is that a private company will be doing work while directly employed, permanent jobs are shed. While the department insists that this isn’t about replacing jobs, it ploughs ahead with doing exactly that.

PT Ops offer – reject ‘jam tomorrow’

This piece has been written in response to Conference Paper A submitted by the Group Executive Committee, regarding the ‘offer’ received from Personal Tax Operations over various issues. (Download a copy of the paper in .doc format here.)

The offer put forward does not give enough substantive gains to be supported. Further, much of the bargaining agenda instructed by reps through last year’s emergency summit remains unresolved and there are too many threats hanging over members’ heads for the union to realistically present itself as ‘in agreement’ with management on any level.

The model emergency motion at the end of this piece is for branches to submit in opposition to those made by Conference Paper A. Although we will discuss below what has gone wrong in the past year, from a position critical of the GEC, the model motion has been drafted in the spirit of offering a proactive strategy from this point on rather than simply navel gazing and dwelling on what could have been.

Ballot for action – vote yes, and build the rank-and-file

The PCS Revenue & Customs Group Executive Committee yesterday (Wednesday 16 April) announced that it is to ballot all members in HMRC for industrial action. The ballot will run from Monday 28 April to Friday 16 May.

The ballot will be over the demands of the Jobs & Staffing Campaign, which include:

• An agreement on staffing to ensure that there are enough staff to do the work.
• Permanent jobs for all members on fixed term contracts.
• An end to all current privatisation exercises and a commitment not to outsource any HMRC work in future.
• A guarantee of no compulsory redundancies and no compulsory moves beyond reasonable daily travel.
• An end to office closures, and for HMRC to retain a visible face to face presence in our communities.
• An agreement on workload – reducing stress, over-stretch and demands on workers.
• An immediate scrapping of the discredited performance management system.
• A reduction in line managers’ spans of command, to reduce pressure and to allow managers to focus more on staff support and development.
• A fully funded HMRC tackling avoidance and evasion – but also putting public service delivery at the heart of everything it does.

Demand a member-led strategy

By Ian Hough, candidate for the Standing Orders Committee

Some have us have realised that things need to change because we believe there is a gap between the members of PCS and the GEC. It’s about time someone acknowledged that low turnouts in Union elections and poor attendance at many General meetings actually means silence from a powerful voice that needs to be heard.

We believe there are Branch representatives out there who also feel something has gone wrong and that there is a gap between the GEC and most Branches. In fact Branch Committees that feel connected are probably those that include a GEC member, although even this isn’t the case if you are not in the relevant faction or you are and the GEC rep isn’t.

Leave banking scrapped as part of T&C attacks

The latest heartless attack on HMRC staff’s dearly held terms and conditions has been announced today (15 April) by our employer.

They have decided following a year long review to withdraw the facility to bank leave with effect from 1 May. Any banked leave will have to be used on top of annual leave over the 5 years to 2019. They will not even allow conversion of banked leave to pay. This will impact on many staff who bank leave to keep when needed for caring responsibilities.

More than anything, it’s further proof that while we sit and do nothing the employer grows ever more confident. It looks like the threat from the Left Unity majority GEC of a Jobs and Staffing Campaign has not brought the employer to the table in any meaningful way.

So why aren’t members being listened to? Why hasn’t the conference instruction to ballot members with a recommendation to reject the new terms been followed, when this was the very thing that sparked the walk out when Francis Maude visited Coventry in 2012? When will our representatives challenge the very things members are prepared to take action over?

A final irony is that at the same time as this attack on leave and family friendly time off, the same employer along with our PCS negotiators are claiming an agreement on leave in PT Ops.

Our GEC must improve

By Gary Stein, standing for Assistant Group Secretary

This year we have been faced with constant attacks on our working lives from an employer hell bent on implementing its cuts agenda and reducing staffing numbers by any means possible.

We have seen:

• Plans implemented to close our enquiry centre network
• A constant flow of office closures announcements
• Job cutting tools such as PMS introduced
• Imposed detrimental changes to terms & conditions
• The quality of our jobs deteriorating drastically
• Reduced flexibility & annual leave availability

In response to our employer’s relentless attacks our group executive has responded by continually referring to an ‘imminent’ Jobs & Staffing Campaign which would be all encompassing.

Despite these assurances the reality is that our members have seen a year of inactivity from our GEC. There has been no meaningful industrial response to our employers endless attacks and members have been left to suffer in the dark without proper instruction or guidance.

As a result members have lost faith in the current Group Executive Committee and have become disengaged with the group’s Jobs & Staffing Campaign.

The incoming GEC are going to have to work hard to regain members’ confidence. I believe this can be achieved by GEC members becoming more accountable and visible to our members. If elected I commit to:

• Ensuring democratically set conference policy is adhered to
• Voting in an independent & transparent manner
• Attending regular members meetings in workplaces
• Providing frequent negotiating updates & briefings
• Being contactable to members when required.

Let’s be realistic…

Pay freezes, pension cuts, PMR, leave restrictions. No one doubts the attacks on civil servants and the wider working class are some of the worst we have seen for some time.

The attacks however have been made worse by something unexpected. Timidity within the Labour movement in mounting a concerted fight back.

Part of this timidity is for good reason. The movement has over the last decade become very re-active. It’s very good at being against things, but rarely expands on what it is for.

This has led to action ending up a cul de sac or in confusion. The current PMR system imposed is an example. No one wants it, but if it goes what would replace it, more to the point what would be acceptable?

Digital agenda bares its teeth with HMRC post room announcement

HM Revenue & Customs has announced that, as part of its wider digitalisation programme, all post into the department will be handled and scanned by a private contractor. This represents yet another attack on the jobs of low paid civil servants, as well as a clear determination to farm out public services to the highest bidder.

HMRC believe that their digital strategy will allow them to shed 18,000 jobs by 2019. It is a particular threat for staff who work in post rooms, processing offices and contact centres at the lower pay grades. Where digitalisation does not take our jobs, it will make them harder by leaving those who survive the cull to switch between different types of work at a moment’s notice to meet the targets of a department for whom crisis management is the norm.

Promises

By Gerry Noble, standing for Deputy Group Secretary

In ‘Laying Down the Gauntlet‘ reference was made to ‘right wing independents’ and ‘Left Unity’ Group candidates. I feel clarification is needed regarding this.

I would have hoped it goes without saying that neither of these terms used refer to all of those standing for the GEC or singles out any particular individual, but rather reiterates commonly used phrases used in previous years’ election campaigns – and possibly this year’s too! There are some extremely competent and capable candidates in both of these groupings, but these individuals are often stifled by the constraints of their factions or loyalties (this being evident in this years PMR debacle for example).

What I would do differently:

• I would pursue conference policy vigorously. In circumstances were this is not achievable (eg legal obstacles) I would relay this with full transparency to branches and members and seek their direction.
• I would not push forward alternatives to the democratically agreed policy unless grassroots members clearly instructed the need for it.
• I would vote on issues as members see them.
• I would respect and work with fellow activists views regardless of faction and/or political persuasion.

This GEC needs new blood that is prepared to work alongside experienced comrades in the interest of providing the direct action the members are clearly asking for. I am prepared to do this.

Elections are approaching – what about the silent 90%?

Neither of the two factions in PCS R&C Group (the right-wing or LU) have shown they have the skills, talent or confidence to negotiate effectively for members. Both still insist on accepting the employer’s tactic of dealing with the workforce as a set of smaller, separate business units. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing most of the time. The result of this for members is that gains in one area are wiped out elsewhere.

Jobs is the classic example, both factions claimed to have saved jobs, even created jobs when the Compliance unit started to recruit. At the same time, staff in the Processing stream were being cut and those left faced worsening terms and conditions. We all know over 40,000 jobs in HMRC have gone in ten years and countless workplaces lost forever – with more to come. A monumental failure by any standards, when with hindsight one looks at the lack of real resistance over that time.