DEAL OR NO DEAL

HMRC’s three-year pay offer and overhaul of its employment terms (see p.6) prompted a mixed response. Some readers were pleased to see staff offered a pay rise and welcomed the changes, including standardised contracts and the option of regular work from home... “Great news for all staff. Excellent job on the team getting this through,” Jeanette Forder said.

“It would be good to see the same scope and ambition across departments. We are one civil service after all,” Rachel McCann added.

And Graham commented: “I left HMRC in 2017 when the Cambridge office was closed... because I didn’t want to commute to London or Peterborough five days a week. If I’d been offered two days a week working at home then I might still be there.”

...But others had qualms about the downsides, including changes to working patterns and cuts to overtime pay.

“It’s not just a pay deal... It’s a pay deal with strings that reward the new kids on the block and punish the dedicated, experienced staff who quite frankly are the backbone of the civil service,” Sarah Clark said.

Craig Worswick said if HMRC wanted to make conditions fairer, it was taking the wrong approach. “The unfairness comes about from previous attacks on terms and conditions. What thousands of staff ought to know is that their contracts should resemble those of the long-serving members of staff but they have been repeatedly watered down, creating a multi-tiered workforce. This is about ‘levelling down’ and the permanent secretary has decided to engage in a classic case of ‘divide and rule’,” he said.

Steve Ryan also said the changes amounted to “levelling down, to make people work longer at a time of pandemic when the concept if a shorter working week is commonly accepted. Moreover, there seems to be absolutely no provable business need for the changes.”

David Read asked: “Is there scope in the deal for people to buy back leave?

Currently I’d rather have the time than money. I’m in another department and I’d be a bit disappointed if I lost leave and had hours increased at my age and stage.”

And Peter Royle wrote: “I don’t blame members for voting for it but don’t believe the unions should be recommending a deal where some will lose existing rights.”