Members of ARC and Keystone have voted overwhelmingly to accept the HMRC pay and contract reform, which will see the majority of members receive approximately 13% consolidated increase over the lifetime of the offer.
The results are as follows:
ARC
Accept: 99.16%
Reject: 0.84%
% of members voting: 88.3%
Keystone
Accept: 99.2%
Reject: 0.8%
% of members voting: 87.4%
Responding to the vote, ARC President Loz Hutton said:
“A huge thank you to all the members who participated in the consultation process attending and contributing to our pay meetings and for casting your vote. We had over 50% of the membership dial in to our pay sessions.
“We have had an incredible response to vote on this forward looking pay and conditions offer. The majority of members voting in favour clearly demonstrates how much the offer means to members.”
In addition to the above inflation pay rise, the offer also included a range of family-friendly policies and new approach to flexible working. New flexitime arrangements will be made available, giving HMRC staff up to Grades 6 and 7 the contractual right to take 28 days flexi-leave a year on top of their annual leave entitlement. This will address longstanding concerns about the inconsistent application of the TOIL policy and is hopefully a positive step to address the excessive working hours culture in parts of the department.
We also negotiated enhanced paternity pay, increasing from two to four weeks from 1 September 2021, alongside special leave entitlement to support colleagues when a child arrives prematurely and also ensuring both parents receive paid time off to attend antenatal appointments.
As a result of the pandemic, members made it clear that in the future they would like a more flexible approach to working, including the ability to continue working from home if this is no longer the default. Taking these views onboard, we negotiated that members will have the opportunity to work a minimum of two days from home, with the potential for more if their role allows.
The pay deal has been achieved following detailed negotiations with ARC, which commenced in July 2020. HMRC has engaged with unions and worked constructively to take a proposal to the Treasury, which has allowed the department to award staff with an above inflation pay rise that they well and truly deserve.
Key points of the offer
- The offer is a three-year deal giving an average pay award of 13% across the term. A 3% increase would be awarded in March 2021 (backdated to June 2020), followed by a 5% increase in June 2021 and a 5% increase in June 2022. These increases will be consolidated and therefore pensionable until you reach the maximum of the new ranges. Any additional amounts will then be paid as a non-consolidated lump sum.
- Employees will get the full pay award each year, but where that would take someone beyond the max it will be paid as a non-consolidated bonus.
- The increase to the min and max has been capped at 1%. This was a non-negotiable condition set by HMT and Cabinet Office – we are working with the FDA and HMRC to fight to fix it in future years.
- HMRC has committed to urgently with ARC at the end of this pay deal to find the right pay model to enable members to move through their pay ranges.
- HMRC Trainees on a scheme to G7 (Band T and Legal Trainees) will be moved to the HMRC HO and SO ranges during the pay award period, securing higher future pay and ensuring fair access to future pay awards rather than being treated differently, which has historically led to their pay lagging behind. For TSP, we are working with Tax Academy to finalise which trainees will move onto the SO range (Training schemes retain their special status and ARC continues to represent all trainees).
- Flexitime arrangements will now be available to Grade 6 & 7 and will be contractual. The arrangements will allow members a contractual right to take up to 28 days flexi-leave a year on top of their annual leave entitlement. This will address longstanding member concerns about the inconsistent application of the TOIL policy and is hopefully a positive step to address the excessive working hours culture in parts of the department.
- Working hours will move to 37 hours per week for everyone, and this will be pro-rated for part time members of staff.
- Annual leave entitlement will be a maximum of 30 days per year, with the starting entitlement being 25 days, increasing by one day per year of service. Previous qualifying service either in HMRC or in another Civil Service department will count towards increasing your allowance. In addition to annual leave entitlement everyone will receive a privilege day for the Queen’s Birthday which can be taken at any point in the year.
- A single contract and terms and conditions will be introduced and for most people this will mean no change to their current working arrangements.
- We are not changing to 5 over 7 contracts – they will no longer exist.
- Where a directorate needs to introduce different working arrangements, including, for example regular evening or weekend working, this will be subject to a mandatory enhanced consultation process with the unions before it can be implemented through a new directorate working arrangement.
- As part of this offer the working arrangements for staff in Customer Service Group will be changed.
- Other directorates have confirmed that they do not want to change their current working arrangements at this time.
- A limited number of specific personal working patterns such as term time working and part year working, and certain condensed hours arrangements, will now be subject to a 5 year time limit at which point an application can be made to renew. This does not affect part time or working patterns in general – and the purpose is to ensure that more people are able to access these arrangements when they need them as a limited number can be supported at any one time.
- There will be longer notice periods for G7 and G6, 8 and 12 weeks when they resign from a job to ensure a proper handover can take place. This does not affect rights in other policies like redundancy or the Civil Service Management Code.
- For those who have legacy sickness pay rights i.e. 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay, these will not alter as a result of this deal, unless you are promoted, at which point you will move to the new sickness pay arrangements.
- We have negotiated new family policies to improve the offer for colleagues who are becoming parents. From 1 September we will see paternity pay enhanced from 2 weeks to 4 weeks, provide special leave entitlement to support colleagues when a child arrives prematurely and also ensuring both parents receive paid time off to attend antenatal appointments.
- There are some changes to Daily Travel Assistance policy from 1 June which may affect staff as a result of the Locations Programme. It will now be calculated on the actual difference in weekly costs rather than daily commuting costs and will be available for 3 years.
- HMRC will have a standard leave year of 1 September to 31 August with effect from 1 September 2021.
- There will be some changes to mark time, overtime and premia payments.
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Are these senior staff worth such a pay rise?
ReplyDeleteI can name at name at least 5 senior HMRC staff who covered up bullying, harassment, discrimination, law-breaking and confidentiality/data breaches, blocking truth and justice.
As a former HMRC Officer, they are still to make a proper apology to me for putting my personal data in the untrustworthy hands of Mr Bower (not an HMRC staff member), causing him to turn up unannounced at my home, breaking various laws, which caused harassment, alarm and distress to me and my household, at a time when I was suffering serious mental health trauma as a result of an HMRC bullying campaign. This impact of this law-breaking was a major factor in me being unlawfully forced out of the department.
If that's how HMRC treat staff data, why should taxpayers trust them with theirs?
If they can literally destroy the career of long-serving staff, without fear of repercussions for that misconduct or the cover up, how can taxpayers trust them to deal with their tax and benefits' issues with honesty and integrity?
With mental health once again in the media, I am putting HMRC on notice that their misconduct is not forgotten. They choose to push me to the brink of suicide and run away from the incredibly serious series of events, they thought it was a clever strategy, but they cannot hide from it forever.
Any other victims of HMRC bullying, please seek help and blow the whistle. The HMRC management will use the mental health injury that they caused as a smear to discredit you, but please don't let that dirty trick deter you from pursuing these cowards.
HMRC and the wider Civil Service have an Internal Fraud Database (IFD) which registers the names of staff who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty. That's a good thing; as a former HMRC employee who nearly lost their life due to HMRC bullying, I wholeheartedly support it.
DeleteJust a thought, though: what good is the register when there are *current* staff, and retired staff collecting an HMRC pension, who have done the following, without any consequences?
- Field Force Collector, Richard, damaging property and not reporting it
- A Compliance SO manager relentlessly bullying a staff member off sick with an HMRC inflicted mental health injury, and then creating fake documents to cover her tracks when she feared being rumbled at employment tribunal
- A manager unlawfully divulging data to outside parties, and this being covered up by Grade 6 & 7 staff who blocked referral of that crime to internal fraud investigators
- Managers humiliating, degrading and belittling Disability
- HR staff covering up misconduct
- Staff bullied to the verge of suicide
The culture of casual corruption in HMRC needs proper investigation!
So because you've got a beef against 5 members of HMRC staff you think nobody in the department should get a pay rise? That seems reasonable and rational!
DeleteIncidentally, can we have an update on how the police investigation into the criminal offences against you is going?
Thanks.
Mr Bower and the HMRC management who, obviously as some kind of threat, sent him round to the home address of another HMRC staff member, wilfully breaking laws in doing so, should have been held to account for that behaviour; it's plain wrong and, frankly, sinister, not to mention being CRIMINAL conduct.
DeleteLikewise, any Grade 6 & 7s and HR staff who blocked referral of that crime to the appropriate people, should face serious consequences. Emboldened bullies at HMRC, acting as though they are above the law, are potentially a serious risk to other HMRC staff and the public.
A genuine and sincere question to @10:43.
DeleteCould you please explain who 'Mr Bower' is, why he was 'sent round' to your home and what he said/did when he arrived at your home.
I am afraid that without this basic information you come across as this site's resident conspiracy fantasist.
Also, I notice that yet again you avoid the key question of why you have not referred the alleged criminal acts against you to the appropriate authorities. Your story simply does not ring true on any level.
Alas, the incident involving Bower is not a conspiracy theory and had devastating consequences to me as the victim. HMRC even reluctantly *admitted* that it occurred and that it should not have done, but covered it up and blocked referral to the appropriate authorities, as they were duty bound to do. The context is that it was part of a long-running bullying and harassment campaign by an SO manager and others - the full account runs into dozens of pages. It involved HMRC committing offences relating to harassment and data and acting contrary to the CRCA 2005; plus numerous breaches of employment and equality laws.
DeleteI am putting an outline of the facts out there as a matter of public interest, whether anyone chooses to believe it, or not, is a matter for them. It bothers me not. There are *a lot* of payroll apologists for HMRC's rotten corruption culture.
However, pushed to the brink of suicide and suffering with PTSD and depression as a result of HMRC's campaign of bullying and harassment, it would be remiss of me to not warn people that HMRC is an organisation that cannot adequately deal with staff misconduct and law-breaking. Their lack of governance has consequences for all staff and all taxpayers.
And still you have not explained who Mr Bower is and why HMRC sent him round to your house.
DeleteYou now claim that HMRC "blocked" referral of a complaint about his visit to the appropriate authorities. If this is part of the 'criminal' activity against you then HMRC do not have the power to do this. All you do is walk into the nearest police station with your solicitor - simples, job done.
So in summary you will not tell us who Mr Bower is and despite being the victim of of a criminal conspiracy intended to end your life (and possessing evidence of the conspiracy) you have not made a formal complaint to the police.
And you really expect people to believe this?
@12.21
ReplyDeleteA reasonable request that seems to have been evaded once more by the resident complainer. I have no doubt that something went on, and your suggestion that he go to the police with an solicitor is a valid one.
I have said in my previous posts that he (or she) should consult a solicitor specialising in employment law. I can only assume that they have either not done so, or does not have a case that a solicitor is willing to take on.
...and not one comment on the pay award
ReplyDeleteThis is the problem with our resident paranoid, conspiracy fantasist - he routinely hijacks random threads to bore us all with his evidence-free, bizarre accusations.
DeleteRegarding comments on the pay award, members of the ARC tend to be very well paid for the job they do and members of Keystone tend to be quislings with an eye on ingratiating themselves with the bosses so the results of their vote tell us nothing we wouldn't have guessed before.
I have read widespread allegations across numerous online platforms from several individuals concerning the working culture at HMRC.
ReplyDeleteThe Laura Whyte report commissioned by HMRC confirmed that there is a significant problem with bullying and misconduct being covered up. Won't speak for anyone else, but the allegations on here seem credible and true. 35 years in the department tells me that if someone is saying they are suicidal because of bullying, it should be treated seriously. Anything else is "gaslighting" - a technique very familiar with bullies in HMRC offices - and reflective of someone brown nosing the corrupt management.
Nobody is claiming that bullying does not exist in HMRC, nor is anyone trying to trivialise mental anguish and suicidal feelings.
DeleteThe problem is this one person who has claimed for years now to have been the victim of a criminal conspiracy hatched by HMRC staff past and present. Despite insisting that they have concrete evidence regarding this conspiracy they refuse to progress the matter through the appropriate legal channels and will not explain why.
They then, on occasion, produce a rabbit out of the hat like 'Mr Bower'. What an interesting character this is. He has no connection to HMRC, but was sent round to the complainant's private address by the department years after the complainant had ceased to be an employee. We are of course not told why he was sent round, or what he said and did when he arrived. We are also told that HMRC blocked complaints against Mr Bower's visit, something that they have no legal power to do.
Bullying should be treated very seriously indeed.
Accusations that do not stand up to the most basic scrutiny, less so.
@ 15/03/21 14:41
DeleteThank you for your comment. It was me who wrote the original comment on 10 March. Just to be clear, Bower was the boyfriend of my HMRC manager who was at that time engaged in a campaign of bullying and harassment - she came across as a vile, sexist man-hater, bringing her issues into the workplace. Bower was given access to my private medical data and my home address. He made a nuisance of himself on my private property - and had no legal right to be there. Just knowing that a member of the public who cannot be trusted, as they are not working under the control of HMRC and had an extremely dodgy background, now knew my family's home address caused severe anxiety and fear, especially because I had dealt with thousands of taxpayers face to face in my service in debt management and local compliance over almost two decades, many in my local area. It showed my bullying manager's total disregard for the rules (as you may be aware, other HMRC staff have quite properly been dismissed for more minor breaches of the data rules which are there to protect data subjects - taxpayers and HMRC staff) and showed how 'above the rules' she considered herself. It's almost like she knew her Grade 7 would cover for her. Those that fail to recognise this as a serious data breach, or that the involvement of a bullying manager's boyfriend in this way feels quite sinister and threatening, are part of the problem that creates a culture in HMRC where misconduct is considered the norm - a culture that breeds distrust from the public and which deters high quality people from wanting to work for HMRC out of fear of HMRC's psychological violence.
I *WAS* AN HMRC EMPLOYEE AT THE TIME OF THIS INCIDENT. I was also seriously ill with effects of HMRC bullying by this point. This incident and the cover up broke me, costing me my career. I had a mental breakdown. HMRC knew this and used it to their advantage, blocking referral of my manager's misconduct to the appropriate authorities.
The pay across the board in HMRC is disgraceful, and is part of the problem with the very low standards of performance and conduct. As for bullying etc, just goggle "HMRC Respect at Work Report"...instructive
DeleteOnly a suggestion, but raise the pay alongside a 'contract' with management to address bullying, harassment and poor performance at all levels in HMRC. In time, the department may even be able to recruit higher quality staff.
@ 16:58.
DeleteYour story, which I will assume is true, sounds utterly horrendous.
There are, however, several questions outstanding:
why have you not taken the case to an Employment Tribunal?
why have you not referred the breach of the DPA to the police?
why have you not referred the intimidation and threatening behaviour of Bower to the police?
how did HMRC block referral of your complaint to the appropriate authorities?
why have you seemingly refused to engage a solicitor who is in the slightest way proactive?
My experience of HMRC higher management is that although they may initially support staff beneath them who are bullies for the sake of a quiet life, they will run a mile at the prospect of any scandal getting into the public domain. So again I would suggest you and your solicitor compiling a comprehensive file of evidence and then together visiting your local police station.
Any news on the Mark Nellthorpe case? He was the senior HMRC official sacked following sexual misconduct allegations, according to newspaper reports, from five female HMRC staff. Allegations of sickening, evil behaviour at senior levels in HMRC.
ReplyDeleteWho, and what else, is being covered up by the notorious Human Resources people at HMRC?
2021 and still not one corrupt HMRC employee has been prosecuted. This organisation needs investigation - they're dangerous!!!
Perhaps we should ask Paul Garlick.
DeleteHe was the man who had all the dirt which was going to blow HMRC apart and send senior officials to prison.
Or maybe he's been silenced by the Illuminati, George Soros, Bill Gates, the BBC, etc, etc, etc.......
I have no idea what else is being "covered up" by the HR people at HMRC.
DeleteWhy don't you tell us?
Have to assume there is some basis for the sexual misconduct allegations against this senior HMRC manager, otherwise newspapers wouldn't have named the individual.
DeleteIf you take hmrc to tribunal you risk facing hmrc's legal team. Private prosecution against individual managers and other employees is likely to result in them having to fund their own legal team providing there actually sufficient evidence.
ReplyDeleteI knew a Band O who was sacked by HMRC for much less than the misconduct described above. She used a tracing system to ascertain her husband's UTR. If an SO divulged the home address of HMRC staff to her boyfriend, resulting in him turning up at their home, with that member of staff mentally ill due to work-related bullying at that time (an aggravating factor), then I wonder why the SO wasn't charged with Gross Misconduct and why the case wasn't referred to B.I.O/Internal Audit for criminal investigation?? I also agree with the above comment, 18 March at 16:51. Note: HMRC's legal team are not interested in justice, their role is stick to the narrative fed from managers and the People Function. If that narrative is a load of BS, cover-up etc, then expect dirty games.
ReplyDeleteWhen I took legal proceedings against HMRC, they were thoroughly dishonest, and the HR & legal team relied on an *undated* false statement which had been created by my manager at some point up to 18 months after I had left the department - and they attempted to present it as a contemporaneous account of a meeting that *never happened*.
DeleteThe reason the manager made the document *undated*, instead of inventing a date, is because, having already been rumbled for sending her threatening boyfriend round to my house, she was scared of picking the wrong date (e.g. a date I was on leave, out on visits etc) and lacked the intelligence to pick a date where I could be confirmed as in the office. The low IQ bullies they are...
They hide behind 'HMRC' to avoid the legal ramifications - they attempted to pervert the course of justice.