PCS Glasgow & Clyde HMRC And Valuation Branch

2016 Annual Report

2016 Financial Report

2015 Audited Accounts

Introduction

Dear member, thanks very much for reading the 2016 Glasgow & Clyde HMRC And Valuation Branch annual & financial report, which gives an overview of industrial & financial activities which took place in PCS over the preceding year.

As you know, 2015 was a tough year for PCS in general and whilst things are far from over, they have improved significantly. In particular, through the direct debit campaign, we managed to sign up over 85% of our branch membership, which was roughly consistent with the overall R&C group within PCS. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you. Not only has this secured vital funds & resources that PCS needs to operate, but it has also demonstrated to the employer that the union busting tactics outlined in the strategy paper leaked in late 2014 will not work.

The check-off campaign may be over in the R&C group, but many other groups are facing the same problem, including within the Valuation Office, which also forms part of the branch, however we're confident that PCS will see the same positive results elsewhere in other groups.

Again, we'd like to thank all of you for the support & solidarity you've shown throughout 2015 and look forward to seeing you at the AGM on 3rd March.

Regards,

Glasgow & Clyde Branch Executive Committee

Annual Report

As you know, 2015 was an extremely difficult year for everyone in PCS. Not only did we see attacks against PCS as a whole, but every member is feeling the full force of the cuts, with worse yet to come.

The good news however, as explained in the introduction, is that we ran an extremely successful campaign to sign over members from Check-Off to Direct Debit, a campaign which saw us switch around 85% of our existing membership - we would like to say thanks to all of you who made the switch. In a broader sense, we're also happy to report that industrial relations across the branch have remained good in all our business units and we've found it easy to work with management where we've needed to in order to resolve things. Similarly, we've had a really successful year representing members who have either faced disciplinaries or taken out grievances - helping members achieve successful resolutions in over 90% of the cases that we took.

We're also happy to report that despite a gradual decline in branch membership over the last few years (due to a decline in departmental staffing levels, plus the loss of some members through the ending of check-off), membership levels have started increasing again. This is largely due to the work that our organising team has done in recruiting new members who have recently been employed by the department - we hope to see some of you at the AGM this year.

On an organisational front, the branch runs three "office committees" (Cotton House Committee (CHC), Contact Centre Committee (CCC) and Portcullis House Committee (PCHC - which covers the non CC areas of Portcullis House)), made up of the local reps who should do the majority of negotiating work with business unit management and the majority of personal casework inside their given work areas. Over the last year, we've only had active reps in the CCC as nobody stood for the other two committees, which has meant the branch has had to allocate Branch Executive Committee (BEC) reps to deal directly with the different business units. Thankfully as we move into 2016, we now have an increased amount of reps in the CCC & a newly-functioning CHC so this should improve our ability to respond to local issues. This type of representation is something we can only do if we have reps who are willing to do it however - there are still vacancies on the CHC and we still have no active reps on the PCHC, so if you are at all interested in getting involved then we would love to hear from you. Similarly, if you would like to be involved but have issues with things like time-constraints due to work etc, then please get in contact anyway as we may well be able to assist with this. Naturally, anyone who does wish to become a rep will receive full-training and support from experienced reps in the branch - nobody is elected then left to just get on with things.

In terms of campaigns, our major local campaign this year has been the closure of the Irvine Tax Office (along with a dozen other tax offices throughout the UK). This process has been ongoing since 2013, when the department announced a round of Voluntary Exit offers - which saw the office numbers initially decrease. 2014 saw the department announce a consultation, which would look into the viability of maintaining a presence in Irvine (plus the other offices). Along with representations made by local politicians, PCS made a full submission arguing the case for the retention of Irvine, which if nothing else, demonstrated that the yield generated by staff in the office was vastly higher than the operating costs. After the close of the consultation, the department delayed the announcement of the future of Irvine until after the referendum, then announced that it would close, furthermore stating that the department was never going to consider maintaining a presence in any of the affected locations (which made everyone wonder why the department had wasted everyone's time with a consultation and gave false hope to the staff working in these offices). Since then, a significant number of staff have taken voluntary redundancy packages, however we still have members who wish to avoid compulsory redundancy and have put forward

options which could potentially allow them to remain employed within the department, thus avoiding redundancy. However, instead of taking its obligations seriously, the department has once again chosen to ignore all viable redundancy avoidance measures and once more created a ridiculous situation where it is making members redundant in some offices whilst recruiting in others.

The main point to draw however is that all of the language and processes being followed are very reminiscent of BoF - all the members were consistently told that the department's plans considered offices & not staff, that this move would prove cost-effective for the department (despite David Guake being unable to provide figures about Irvine's yield when asked in parliament) and that no staff would be forced out of a job. PCS considers these closures a trial-run for BoF and based on what we've seen so far, it would be fair to say that we're concerned. It's particularly worth noting that when the department claims BoF is about locations & not jobs, this is exactly what members in Irvine were told for two years before they were made redundant...

Whilst we still don't really know much about the department's BoF plans, we do feel it's important to point out that as things stand, nobody has been guaranteed a job in the new Glasgow office. Whilst members may feel that being based in Glasgow will guarantee them a position in the new office, despite us pressing the issue, the department has given us no such assurances - the only thing we know so far as that the projected FTE for the new office is significantly lower than the current FTE levels across the West of Scotland. Many members are discussing reasonable daily travel (RDT) as a mechanism which will be used to determine who will work in the new office, however what everyone needs to consider is that RDT is a mechanism used to ensure that nobody is forced to relocate to an office outside of reasonable travel - it's not used to guarantee jobs for people who are inside RDT.

However BoF plays out, it's inconceivable that everyone who wants a job in the new office will have one and we can assure you that PCS will campaign against a situation where members are being made redundant against their wishes. Additionally, PCS has never been officially consulted over BoF and has grave concerns over the viability of the department's plans. As such, PCS is demanding that HMRC:

Enters into substantive talks with PCS over the principles & impact of their location & change proposals, sharing all planning assumptions with the union

Subjects its location & change plans to parliamentary scrutiny Opens an internal HMRC-wide consultation, alongside an external public consultation, which

will inform further planning decisions & the parliamentary scrutiny Confirms that no action will be taken on implementing the locations proposals until the

internal, along with the public consultation has concluded & parliament has taken a view on the outcome

Whilst this isn't a particularly warming picture that's being painted, we don't want to panic or scaremonger - we simply don't know what's going to happen yet and feel that the department owes it to all PCS members to tell us what its plans are. We will however keep you fully updated as soon as we hear anything.

Whilst BoF is extremely daunting, it's by no means a fait accompli - but we can only fight it if we act collectively. PCS will campaign against the worst excesses of BoF and we ask that you all get involved as this is a campaign we can definitely win.

Financial Report

The PCS financial year runs from Jan 1 to Dec 31, with this report detailing activity which took place throughout 2015.

IncomeThe branch's only source of income comes from PCS - we're paid a rebate based on our number of membership/ geographic spread etc (for more info on this you can contact PCS centrally). In 2015, our total rebate was £466.90, which was down significantly from the previous year - one of the reasons being that funding is allocated based on the bank balance carried over from the previous year, so in essence, the lower the bank balance at 31st December, the higher the rebate to top it up. This is coupled with any funding decisions taken by PCS centrally. At the end of 2015, the branch retained a healthy closing account balance.

ExpenditureThis has changed significantly from the preceding year, with the branch spending over £500 less than the year before. There has been a concerted effort to minimise expenditure in line with national concerns over finances due to the withdrawal of check-off. To break it down...

Branch General Meetings - normally there are only two of these per year, in 2014 we were forced to call four due to the necessity of convening off-site meetings in relation to industrial issues that arose late in the year. In contrast, 2015 saw on the regular AGM & Mandate Meeting, so expenditure dropped in this area.

BEC Meetings - all BEC meetings take place in Glasgow - in 2014 we had a rep in Irvine who used to travel to BEC meetings, which necessitated travel expenses claims. As most members have now left Irvine due to the pending office closure & previous exit packages, there are now no active reps in Irvine. Otherwise, all BEC reps are based in Glasgow and as such claim zero travel expenses.

BEC Sub-Committees - this covers costs met by branch of sending reps to various regional bargaining committees. In general, more committees are meeting via telekit where possible, which along with the dissolution of the F2F committee after the Enquiry Centre closures, plus balancing out meeting locations of other committees, expenditure in this area has dropped.

Branch Officers' Expenditure - this is the only area where expenditure has increased - this covers travel expenses brought about through personal case work, but the increase is largely based on the situation in Irvine. The branch undertook a lot of support work in relation to supporting members through 121 processes, various management meetings and the redundancy process.

Printing, Stationery & Postage - this is always fairly minimal & this year there was none.

Other Expenditure - this is again down from 2014, with the only expenditure in 2015 being the branch website costs.

Conclusion & Forecast - 2015 was essentially a frugal year for the branch and based on the remaining account balance, the branch could see out the next eighteen months without receiving any further rebate from PCS assuming things stayed the same. Naturally, we expect expenditure to increase due work relating to BoF and the closure of Irvine. We also plan to do a big recruitment drive in 2016, which may cause additional expenditure, but overall, we expect to be well within our limits again in 2016.

Audited Branch Accounts 01/01/15 - 31/12/15