Staff are lettered
Eight Plaza Tower workers are facing redundancy after HMRC bosses admitted redeployment opportunities are now “increasingly limited”.
HMRC plans to relocate nearly 3000 tax jobs to a regional office in Glasgow by 2026.
Plaza Tower is due to close on September 30 this year with jobs moved to Centre 1 in the interim.
As part of HMRC’s locations programme, the East Kilbride tax office launched a voluntary redundancy scheme on Thursday which identified eight staff members as being outside of reasonable daily travel who did not intend to move to the new regional centre.
However, after working to find solutions for the workers, management have invited them to apply for voluntary redundancy under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme.
Anyone who does not accept voluntary redundancy is at risk of compulsory redundancy.
The last day of service for anyone accepting voluntary redundancy is June 30.
Director of HR operations, Ken Palframan, said: “In 2019, one-to-one discussions commenced with people in Plaza Tower which is due to close by September 30.
These one-to-one discussions enabled us to consider our people’s personal circumstances and establish whether they could move to their new location and what we could do to support them.
“The total number of one-to-one discussions undertaken in Plaza Tower was 564. These are now complete, and we now know that eight people in Plaza Tower East Kilbride are outside of reasonable daily travel and not intending to move to an HMRC office.
“We have confirmed the current position for each of these people and they have joined our redeployment register, giving them priority status for job opportunities at their current grade, both within HMRC and across the Civil Service.”
He added: “We’ve been working hard to find them solutions but recognise that redeployment options for these individuals are now increasingly limited. This is why we’ve invited them to apply for Voluntary Redundancy (VR) under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme.
“We appreciate that for some people this is a difficult time, and we will be doing what we can to support them as they make important decisions about their future.
“Where possible we will do everything we can to avoid exits or redundancies and we will continue to offer practical support for people who want to remain in the Civil Service, as well as for those who may choose to leave.”
Dr Lisa Cameron, MP for East Kilbride, has given her backing to the ‘Stay in EK’ battle, a campaign spearheaded by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union to keep thousands of tax jobs in the town.
The PCS outlined the devastating impact of the loss of tax jobs to the town – forecasting losses of between £16.3million and £30.7m from its economy.
It predicted over £2m could be lost in retail and hospitality alone, with over 400 jobs at risk in the East Kilbride area as a result of the closure.
This is despite HMRC repeatedly insisting there would be “limited” economic impact on East Kilbride – despite failing to carry out a impact assessment of any kind.
Commenting on the latest blow, Dr Cameron aired her concerns over the redundancies and vowed to fight the Tory government “all the way”.
She said: “I was extremely concerned to receive correspondence this week regarding voluntary redundancies at Plaza Tower regarding those affected and their families and I will be urgently contacting HMRC and the Minister responsible. Staff impacted must be fully supported through this difficult time.
“The UK Government’s plans to close our HMRC at Plaza Tower and Centre One and move our specialist jobs to Glasgow shows they are just not ‘walking the walk’ when it comes to regeneration of towns like East Kilbride.
“In response our ‘Stay in EK’ campaign supported by the local community and EK News must continue and we will fight Boris’ blundering plans all the way.”