Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

New union woos HMRC workers

by
5th May 2015
Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

A new union at HMRC, the R&C Trade Union (RCTU), says it can get a better deal for its members by talking with managers rather than striking.

The RCTU was created earlier this year by former members of the PCS. The RCTU claims that the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, which represents about 60,000 workers at HMRC, is too reliant on strike action, too closely aligned to far-left political organisations and doesn’t listen to its members.

“To those who say the employer will not respond a national level and the only way is industrial action, we say it has not worked in the past and will not in the future and that means we go on the way we are,” the RCTU says on its website.

“The employer goes on and we remain bottom of all the organisations in the annual staff survey. That is not a victory; it is a damning statement that must change.”

A more moderate union at HMRC could mean not just less strike action but a change in how the department is run and managed. It could also affect the crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion and HMRC’s customer service.

Firstly the RCTU needs ‘voluntary recognition’ from HMRC so it can negotiate collectively on behalf of its members. That would probably mean getting at least thousands of members.

Lynden Melrose, senior officer at RCTU, says its membership is “well into three figures” and that “four figures [will be] obtainable in very near future.”

The RCTU’s sales pitch is that it’s modern, moderate and apolitical. It says that it will only strike if more than half of its members vote in the ballot. That’s similar to a policy suggested by the Conservative party (making strikes illegal unless at least 50% of union members vote to strike).

“[The] PCS’s is acting as a political party and we’re not,” Melrose says. “Unlike the PCS we don’t have members of the socialist parties and fringe movements. If someone can show me a success story from the PCS in the last 10 years I’ll give you a prize.”

He also claimed that only about 10% of PCS members vote on strike ballots.

Over to the PCS. Its Revenue and Customs group secretary, Peter Middleman, said that 27% of its members voted in its last strike ballot. He said that although the PCS has a political fund it does not support a political party.

The PCS claims HMRC wants to encourage a compliant union which won’t oppose job cuts or seemingly never-ending organisational reforms at the department.

In November last year, the PCS accused HMRC officials of an "orchestrated plot" to undermine the PCS after the leak of a “strategy paper” written for HMRC's executive committee which, according to the PCS, outlined plans to try to isolate the union.

HMRC did not comment at the time, but recently told AccountingWEB said it has “neither encouraged nor discouraged RCTU”.

An employer is obliged to allow any union to represent a member in any personal case, although there are no plans to grant further recognition to RCTU, HMRC says.

The RCTU says it is independent to HMRC:“We’re committed trade unionists and also civil servants who work with HMRC,” Melrose says.

“We’re nothing to do with employer, not supported by them or financially. We want to do things with a degree of maturity. That claim is risible.”

Financial Worry

Any loss of members to the RCTU union could worsen the PCS’s financial problems.

Whitehall departments have stopped deducting trade-union subscriptions from civil servants’ pay. Workers have in effect to opt in to their union by setting up a direct debit for their subs.

The PCS reckons this change could cost it about 15% or 30,000 members across the whole union and 7,000 in HMRC. That would mean to an annual loss of income of about £3.5m, the PCS has estimated.

Do accountants care? They typically don’t join unions and some have criticised the PCS’s strikes. But there’s sympathy for HMRC workers. HMRC has cut about 30,000 jobs since 2005. Staff surveys show that HMRC workers feel demoralised.

Nigel May, tax partner at MHA MacIntyre Hudson, says: “HMRC workers are essentially political footballs [who are] given task of enforcing tax legislation. Tax legislation by successive governments hasn’t served us well.

“If you take the PCS statements at face value, every HMRC brings revenue into the coffers why would the government not follow what has been said [by PCS and employ more tax inspectors]? Maybe there is a way to get HMRC working better. It’d be very nice to see an improvement in the experience of dealing with HMRC whether it’s more staff, better trained staff or more motivated staff.”

Tags:

Replies (2)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

avatar
By Simon Sweetman
06th May 2015 13:33

new union

I have to admit to an interest here - I was a branch chairman in the old IRSF, which became part of PCS later. If the PCS is really too political (and it's not just the Daily Mail readers again) then that si the fault of the members themselves, because trade unions are democratic organisations now compelled by the law to obtain majorities for policies which would leave everyday politicians miles adrift.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By blueskies
06th May 2015 14:50

New union

Only time will tell whether a "more moderate" union will change the prevailing view within Govt that money spent in training staff is a waste rather than an investment in HMRC staff.  I am confident that few of my fellow professional accountants believe that the taxpayer/ accountant facing service provided by HMRC has improved over the last few years.

A final thought - What happened to the UK coal industry once the NUM were outflanked in the same way?  How many pits remain open today?

 

Thanks (0)