The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
EXCLUSIVE: Staff fear losing out financially due to law change
Redundancy threatened HMRC staff in Dundee face losing five-figure cash sums along with their jobs because of controversial UK Government law changes, it has been claimed.
Around 130 jobs are likely to be lost in the city under plans to shut Caledonian House unless the staff move to hub offices in the central belt.
Workers have now raised major concerns that changes to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme will leave them significantly out of pocket compared to the terms on offer when the closure was first announced in April.
Consultation is under way as UK ministers aim to reduce the costs of redundancy payouts and ensure greater consistency across the public sector.
Trade union leaders said staff will likely receive three weeks’ wages for every year they have worked, as opposed to the current set-up of four.
One worker with more than 30 years’ service told The Courier they would have received around £58,000 under the old entitlement but will receive a little more than £41,000 minus tax under new proposals.
Another claimed they would be left £16,000 worse off compared to the set-up at the moment, which was introduced in December 2010.
The current civil service redundancy scheme was described by then Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude as “fair, affordable and sustainable”.
PCS trade union Dundee branch secretary Stuart Jeffery said: “It is outrageous and bordering on immoral to put a plan in place then, subsequent to telling people their jobs are going, go changing the compensation they were entitled to. I was speaking to one of our members yesterday. They have more than a decade’s service and they are going to lose out on £8,000.
“For them, that is the difference between being able to set up a small business. Now they are facing signing on because the redundancy terms will not allow them to move on at all.”
A spokesman for HMRC said the civil service body is doing “everything possible” to avoid redundancies ahead of Caledonian House closure in 2017/18.
He added: “If they are not able to travel to another HMRC office once it closes, we will use the time to work with them to find alternative employment wherever possible.
“If redundancies are unavoidable, the process will follow the guidelines in the Civil Service Compensation Scheme which is due to be changed alongside wider Government reforms announced in 2015.”