ARC News 74 december 2014

““PMRy years” Tonace—7

“For me, trying to make a difference.”

“Fr”.

Eugene Mitchell—16

Fran Hunter—9

ISSUE 74 | DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014

TALL TALES

for the

SEASON TONY WALLACE p10

arc-forum.org

FIRST

EDITORIAL

WILL RICHARDSON

T

hose of you who have done the members’ survey will have doubtless noticed that there were a couple of questions about arcnews and electronic publication. This follows some serious thinking about ARC’s costs. After the expenses of running Committee and the AGM, arcnews is our biggest single expense. I think this is eminently defensible (I would, wouldn’t I?) but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look carefully at how we do it. And when I say ‘we’, I mean you. I think it’s important that the major method of communication with members should be attractive, regular, relevant, interesting and well-designed. But none of that means it has to be a paper magazine that we post to members ten or so times a year.

Committee has already made a decision – partly because of the difficulty of getting enough relevant, timely copy ten times a year – to move to publishing arcnews every two months (although there will probably be seven issues in 2015 to accommodate an AGM/ADC special which would otherwise fall awkwardly in the schedule.) The bigger question – certainly financially, but also in terms of what you want – is whether you would accept some form of electronic publication instead of paper. Printing and postage costs us over £20,000 a year. A fully electronic publication would eliminate all of that cost.

We aren’t the only organisation facing these decisions. The newspaper and magazine industry is still coming to terms with the challenge of keeping readers who now expect to get free news from the Internet. There are varying answers, from the free Evening Standard in London (offer advertisers a captive commuter market and hope for the best) to the web offering of The Guardian (there’s a quality market out there somewhere, let’s hope for the best) to the online Daily Mail (give them some soft porn down the right-hand side and profit from the worst). Unions and other membership organisations face similar problems. We vary in the extent to which we depend on advertising (for most unions it’s just the icing on the cake, not the reason for publishing) but we all face the same considerations. Will our members accept a wholly web-based publication? Will they appreciate the bells and whistles (comment at the end of articles, for example, or instant publication with little or no lead time) more than they deprecate the absence of the familiar paper copy? Will some members simply ignore the web-based version, meaning that part of your constituency is significantly less well-informed? Some of the answers will come down to demographics, although I would strongly counsel against assumptions based merely on the age profile of the membership, which we know is slanted towards the more mature. I hate the term ‘silver surfer’, but it exists for a reason, and ARC members are both well-educated and used to technology.

My own personal preference would be a fully-fledged website, updated more frequently than a magazine could ever be, which would gradually expand to be the web presence of ARC generally, but that is a personal view not a Committee decision. If you haven’t expressed a preference in the members’ survey, let me know what you think directly.

A merry Christmas, even if you’ve already had it, and a happy New Year to all our readers.

Will Richardson Editor

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arcnews

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FIRST

CAPTION COMPETITION THIS ISSUE’S COMPETITION

is published by the Association of Revenue and Customs (ARC) 8 Leake Street, London SE1 7NN

THIS ISSUE

Tony Wallace, President: 020 7401 5559

Since it’s the festive season, let’s go with the traditional picture of (left to right, as if you needed to be told) Graham Flew and Mick Lett. This was snapped after the pre-conference quiz in May, and it’s just possible that drink may have been consumed.

Keep it reasonably clean, and get it to me (arcnewseditor@gmail. com) by the end of January please.

President’s Secretary: 020 7401 5573 Fax: 020 7401 5552 Membership: 020 7401 5590 membership@fda.org.uk Editor: Will Richardson arcnewseditor@gmail.com Mobile: 07973 895887 Deputy Editor: Julie Blayney Design & Production: Lexographic james@lexographic.co.uk Advertising and classifieds: Simon Briant SDB Marketing 01273 594455 simon@sdbmarketing.co.uk Printing: Warners Midlands PLC The Maltings Manor Lane Bourne Lincolnshire PE10 9PH

“So anyone taller than this will automatically be marked Must Improve and told to shrink by 15%.”

The views expressed in arcnews are not necessarily the views of the editor or the union. arcnews is printed on environmentally-friendly paper produced from sustainable forests and wrapped in biodegradable polywrap.

Please recycle after you have finished reading this magazine.

ARCNEWS 72

ARCNEWS 72

Congratulations to Miles Nelson. Both Allan and Mark entered, and I can assure them that they weren’t excluded because they were in the picture; Miles just pipped them.

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FIRST LETTERS

Letters Letters on all topics are welcome. We may edit letters for sense and syntax; please email them to arcnewseditor@gmail.com and mark them clearly for publication or write to ARC, 8 Leake Street, London SE1 7NN.

Going early Further to Jeff Brice’s request in arcnews October 2014 article ‘The Golden Generation’, I am writing to outline reasons for my recent decision to retire early on 31 December 2014.

I was a late graduate entrant to IR in 1986 age 28, have been an FT Grade 7 equivalent since 1991 and on the G7 max for many years so my net pay has been going down. I have had several posts outside the civil service (all higher paid than in HMRC).

My pensionable pay in IR in 2001 when I first left to work in the tax profession was £41,437 pa and in 2003 when I returned it was £45,136.

I have worked part time since February 2009, but have been buying added years since 2003. I have recently had a secondment outside HMRC for 13 months returning in June 2014. As a result, my reckonable service will be only 27.6 years

by December and I am 4

in Premium scheme, so am well below maximum pension accrual.

I will be 60 in September 2017, so am accepting an actuarial reduction of pension for two years and eigth months. At 5% per annum this means that my accrued pension of £28,644 pa will be reduced to £24,892 pa.

However, this will then increase annually by CPI. The pensionable earnings on which my award has been calculated are the average for the three years to 31/3/2008, indexed to £62,295. In 2008 my salary rate was £53,662 pa.

My current (2014) salary rate is £54,741.

So in the six years since 2008, my salary rate has

increased by £1,080 (2%) but had it increased by the inflation rate used for the pension calculation it would have gone up by 16% – an extra £7,554 pa.

I had a non-consolidated award for a ‘top’ marking in June 2012 and a recognition bonus in March 2013 but no pension benefit accrued due to HMRC pay cap.

With restricted pay for part time working of 30 hours, in May 2012 my net salary was £2,279.

After tax, higher NI and pension deductions, and my added years pension premiums, it is now £2,165 for the same nominal hours (though I work at least 37 hours a week now in practice) so has gone down 5.27% in two years).

I calculate my reduced pension will be about £1,826 net a month, £330-£340 per month less than my current net pay, but with the prospect of a small annual CPI increase each year. I have a heavy and increasing workload, for a net income difference of only £2.50 an hour (or less if actual hours worked are used). Working another 32 months under the new PMR regime mainly for a better pension was just not worth it, especially as I declined consideration of progression ten years ago.

By contrast, my husband David retired from HMRC in 2008 aged 60 after 42 years’ service, at the top of the Grade 6 arcnews

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FIRST ARC FORUM

“I hope this will help to fuel your arguments and emphasise the prospective loss of critical expertise as a result of early retirement.” pay scale £64,704 and after taking a lump sum (which I will have to forego for income) his first pension in year 2008-9 was at an annual rate of £26,593. Then by 2010-11 it was £27,922 and by 2013-14 £30,943.

So his gross pension increased by 16.35% in the same period as my gross salary increased by 2%.

His net pension has done better – it was £1,874 pcm January 2009 then increased to £1,964 in May 2009 when my net salary was £2,247 pcm. By May 2012 his pension was £2,137 and my salary £2,279 but by May 2013 his pension was £2,215 and my net salary £2175.50. His net pension went up £341 (over 18%) from 2009-2013.

Since September 2013 he also has his state pension – perhaps not part of a golden generation, but enjoying his well earned retirement. Needless to arcnews

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say, since 2013 my own net income has gone down by a further £10 a month.

I am lucky to be in a position to make the choice. I have spoken to many colleagues recently who wish they could retire early, and some are planning to do so. As a very experienced Grade 7 with unique knowledge in a specialist area I will be hard to replace (the inevitability of my work being added to my already overburdened colleagues’ roles concerns me). I am still committed to my role and my team, but my overwhelming feeling is that I am making the right decision for me and I hope this practical example of the choice I am making will help to fuel your arguments both for appropriate reward and emphasise the prospective loss of critical expertise as a result of early retirement.

Penny Thorne

Sail the Digital ARC

Visit arc-forum.org and join the debate. It’s a membersonly site and you will need to register the first time you visit.

Registration is simple, but if you are new to forums, you can email the forum administrator at fletcherinsussex@btinternet. com and Martin Fletcher will provide a “help card” to explain how the forum works.

The forum is becoming a useful place to read about things happening in the union, and also to pass on your views. And you will be able to catch up on the latest by reading Tony’s President’s Blog. Also follow us on twitter: www.twitter. com/arc_union for up-to-date information and news.

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FIRST ABBEY HMRC SERVICE

Thanksgiving (no...the other one)

KAREN AUSTWICK, TONY WALLACE, PAULA HOUGHTON, GARETH HILLS, HELEN BAIRD-PARKER.

Paula Houghton went to Westminster Abbey and was glad she did.

T

uesday 23rd September doesn’t sound like a particularly controversial date, but this year it became one when the debate raged about the Service of Thanksgiving for HMRC held at Westminster Abbey. Was it an appropriate way to highlight the work of our members? Was it an appropriate venue in a multicultural, multi-faith Department? The bible isn’t exactly kind about Tax Collectors so should we be there at all?

I had an internal debate when I received my invitation, selected

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because I am a Reservist.

I was unsure whether it was something I wanted to be involved in. As a Trade Unionist I want the employer to recognise the hard work and dedication of its people by paying them properly, rewarding them for doing a good job and not deciding that an arbitrary 10% are poor performers because a widely discredited performance management model says they are. I was unsure whether a church service (however fancy) really gave us the message that we are appreciated.

I spoke to quite a few colleagues, some who were disgusted that money was being wasted on such an event, some

who were desperate to get a ticket as they felt it would be a grand occasion which they didn’t want to miss and still more who were utterly indifferent and couldn’t care less. The revival of an old Customs tradition seemed to touch the right nerve with some, who felt that we lost so much of what made both Departments who they were in the merger and that this was a step in the right direction, towards restoring the pride people used to feel when talking about where they worked.

You will have guessed by the picture that I decided to attend, I am still unsure whether it was about pride in my employer or pride in representing

Reservists, and the wearing of my RAF blue, which made me accept the invitation. I think initially it was the latter. I am hugely proud of the work I do in that area of my life and I think it is important for the employer to recognise it. I have since come to realise that I am proud to work for HMRC. I am proud of the work we do collecting the money required to keep the country running, - the “Noble Purpose” so beloved of our previous President Gareth Hills and I will not be deterred from feeling that pride in my work because the employer is treating me badly, because the current government has no respect for the work of the Civil Service and certainly not because the right-wing media led by the Daily Mail thinks that I should be hiding away and taking the blame for all the ills of the country.

Yes, this celebration could have been more diverse and representative of the broader workforce; yes, it could have been more inclusive but with all that in mind I still think it was a step in the right direction from our employer, publicly stating that we are doing a good job, we are proud of what we do and we are not afraid to demonstrate that pride for all the world to see.

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FIRST THE HARDMAN LECTURE

Game over for avoidance?

James Ewington reports from London.

N

ovember 11th, ARC managed to secure three tickets to the Hardman Lecture, held at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) for the three Committee members leading on external focus and public engagement – Iain Campbell, James Ewington and Spencer Munn.

These invitations arose as a result of the work ARC has been doing with various professional bodies to promote the work of HMRC, and to make the case for investment in a proper reward package for our members.

The Hardman Lecture is an annual event, dedicated to the memory of Philip Hardman, a cofounder of the tax faculty of ICAEW. Previous speakers have included former Chancellors and other Ministers, Sir Gus O’Donnell, and leading lights in the world of tax accountancy and law. The guest list included senior HMRC figures (Jim Harra, Jennie Grainger, Judith Knott) and other key people within the Department, as well as attendees from tax charities, think tanks and professional firms.

This year, the speaker was Jolyon Maugham.

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Jolyon is a leading tax barrister at Devereux Chambers, who has a keen interest in developments in the UK tax landscape.

Jolyon writes a regular blog – waitingfortax.com – which is highly recommended, and contains an interesting mix of fact and opinion, as well as lively debate “below the line”.

Jolyon’s lecture asked “Tax Avoidance: game over?” and explored the impact of recent developments, from the introduction of the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS) regime, through the new General AntiAbuse Rule (GAAR) and more recently still the Accelerated Payment notices and follower notices. Jolyon considered these from several perspectives, and although some of his conclusions were perhaps deliberately provocative, they offered food for thought.

From an HMRC perspective, it was interesting to hear support for an

enhanced penalty regime for schemes which fall foul of the GAAR (“electrifying the ring-fence”), and Jolyon’s view that the High-Risk Promoters initiative is too narrowly drawn may raise some eyebrows. (It is worth noting that the Labour party has also said it wants to introduce penalties.) Perhaps most notably, and possibly controversially, he encouraged senior HMRC people to step outside the self-imposed constraints of the Litigation and Settlement Strategy. They should show more leadership in encouraging their staff to take advantage of the current climate, where HMRC appears to win a disproportionate number of Tribunal cases, in order to settle as many avoidance schemes as possible, for realistic sums. Jolyon’s lecture is reproduced on his blog, and is well worth a read.

Both before and after the lecture, there were opportunities to network

and advance the case we are continually putting to interested stakeholders: that our members carry out the most difficult work within HMRC, of tremendous value to the Exchequer, at a remarkably low cost. But, just as the political and social climate may change such that avoidance resurges, so the economic climate and a prospective recovery will lead to increasing opportunities for our most talented and experienced staff in the outside world. Unless we address the damaging pay disparity between public and private sector professionals, the hard work and the landscape changes Jolyon outlined could be undone. ut with all that in mind I still think it was a step in the right direction from our employer, publicly stating that we are doing a good job, we are proud of what we do and we are not afraid to demonstrate that pride for all the world to see.

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FIRST

OBITUARY

Sandra Kirkham

by Wendy Bradley

C

olleagues who read the forum will already have heard the sad news that Sandra Kirkham died suddenly and unexpectedly on November 6th. She had been ill for some time with multiple sclerosis, progressively losing mobility until getting into London in a wheelchair became too challenging and she moved to home working.

I first knew her as an Inspector in Waterloo in the 90s, but most of her career was spent in SCO and its successor organisations where she crossed paths with a large number of colleagues both in the outreach and liaison work she did for SCO and in her work with ARC. She was originally on the Avoidance Group, working on the larger and more complex cases, and when the groups merged she had a cross section of avoidance cases and civil investigation of serious fraud. Her final job, worked from home, was dealing with independent review of investigation cases and appeals, and even in the last few months of her career, when she began to have cognitive as well as physical difficulties, she still had more technical, investigative and practical knowledge, skills and “nous” than most people in the department.

In ARC she was responsible for sparking several colleagues’ participation in union activities over the years (including my own) and is fondly remembered for her strong and robust views, and for having the skill of getting her message across in 8

a clear, concise and professional way.

She was never interested in union politics or in joining Committee; her interest was more practical, in casework and in pushing for practical changes closer to home. Iain Campbell promised Sandra some chocolates for standing in for him as SI rep at a meeting. So he owed her some chocolates, and then he owed her some more, and then the last time she was able to make it to the ARC dinner she found a carrier bag of chocolates underneath her chair, payback from all the commitments she had quietly fulfilled for him.

SCO was a male-dominated environment and Sandra joined it at around the same time as two other women. Although the three of them were not the first women in SCO, nevertheless I heard it took a bit of coaching to get the team to appreciate diversity and the skills their female colleagues could bring to the party. She supported other women in the department, but also supported other colleagues both personally and via the union, striving for a fair deal for everyone and for the Department to live up to its own standards.

Anyone who applied for another job or a promotion will have experienced her tough love approach to getting you to stand up for yourself and give a proper accounting of your competencies. She was happy to assist anyone and had the enviable knack of talking to anyone and helping them bring out the information that would turn their vague thoughts into a fully workedout example. Latterly, using her own

experiences she, typically, made use of what she had learned about barriers to people with disabilities taking part in the life of the Department to serve on union disability committees and argue for better provisions for those who came after her.

She wasn’t just about the work, though. She was always to the fore in arranging or organising or just mucking in with social activities.

When some people from SCO did the Three Peaks challenge, Sandra was the one who did the logistics, driving from Ben Nevis to Scafell Pike and to Snowdon in 24 hours, driving through the night while the walkers were all sleeping in the van, and made sure they were fed and watered before and after climbing each peak. She organised the rest of the support team to make sure everything was carried out to plan, and still had enough energy left for the disco at the end of the 24 hours. A small group of us, female colleagues and friends, met for breakfast or lunch or to have a scratch card fiesta with our lottery syndicate winnings regularly for years; Sandra was the heart of “the girls” and will be sadly missed.

She leaves a husband, David, daughter Rachel and son Adam.

Her funeral was on November 20th, attended by substantial turn out of colleagues and former colleagues.

Donations in Sandra’s name can be made to the MS Society via Anita Wilson at WF Groombridge, 49 St John’s Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN4 9TP. arcnews

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ACE raises a glass to the L L A W Y f utur N O T e

TURKEY and

TRIMMINGS

A

s we say in Scotland – well, as we say in my house at least (which is, by the way, in Nottinghamshire) – “The nights are fair drawing in”. It’s time to get the obligatory Christmas sweater out, for the feast of conspicuous consumption is upon us and I can feel my waistline expand as I type; mince pie and brandy to hand. OK - I am actually sat on the 06:55 Bingham to Grantham train; mid November in the cold, dark pre-dawn misery

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with rain weeping on the windows. The Yule log, turkey and trimmings are some way off but by the time you read this the real thing will be upon us. Prezzies for all!

It’s that time of year where we reflect over the 12 months that have just gone and sit down to consider what comes next. In that spirit I thought that I would give you a few predictions about what will be the big issues for next year and some ARC New Year Resolutions to help us address them.

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“Communications, why are they so hard?

It’s a question that comes up at every level of every part of every organisation I have ever worked in.”

Austerity, the Gift that Just Keeps Giving There is no doubt that the drive to keep the lid on public sector expenditure is not letting up. At our conference way back last May, FDA invited representatives of all the major political parties to come and tell us of their plans should they be elected next spring. As it was an audience composed exclusively of trade unionists and senior leaders from across the civil service, it was an ideal opportunity for at least one of them to play to the gallery and curry favour from those who will support them professionally no matter what the outcome of next year’s General Election. That not one of them could find it in themselves to commit to anything, other than beyond the next curve of the stark road we are currently travelling, means that next year and those that follow look to be no less challenging than those that have just gone.

If you remained in any doubt then David Gauke, when addressing HMRC’s Autumn Stakeholder Conference in November, could not have been clearer.

He was keen to say that HMRC will continue to get the investment it needs to bring the organisation into the digital age. He was however less keen in that translating into “boots on the ground” to use his phrase. I am not surprised by that answer but remain disappointed by it nevertheless. Our people represent an excellent return on cost as we have demonstrated consistently in our submissions to the Treasury. So it’s more of the same but as our submission on the autumn statement showed, the difference this time is the risk to the business caused by the increasingly unrealistic gap which exists between our pay and that of our outside comparators.

ARC will resolve to carry on making the case that it makes good economic sense to invest in our members

and in their professional skills; we will push for that unrealistic gap which exists between our pay and that of our external comparators to close.

Talking is Good, We Should Do it More Often Communications, why are they so hard?

It’s a question that comes up at every level of every part of every organisation I have ever worked in or been involved with. It generally breaks down a bit like this: “The messages we receive, when we get them at all, are unclear or inconsistent” or alternatively “we get far too much inconsequential rubbish”. At last year’s conference you told us that we had to up our game and we are working to do that. However, resources continue to shrink and we just don’t find the time to talk enough; we constantly have to work to get it better at every level: Committee, Centre and individual member. In our autumn survey we asked you about the future of our communications strategy and arcnews and our plans will be built taking into account the feedback you have given us.

We have already moved to a bi-monthly arcnews, with an option for an electronic-only issue but that leaves a gap which we need to fill. To address that we are looking to introduce a monthly electronic newsletter to give you more real time information on the changes in HMRC along with a diary of what we are doing and who we are speaking to on your behalf. We will continue with regular member updates by email as and when we need them so please make sure that your details are up to date. We are also exploring new web-based methods of communicating better so watch out for developments in the New Year.

But conversations are more than that and I am

>>

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“To challenge avoidance and evasion effectively, a strategy ARC universally supports, requires an abundance of skilled resource at the right level and in the right place.”

<<

encouraging a better dialogue between Committee members, Centre committees and individual members; we need to find a way to better canvas the opinions of our members beyond those of us in active positions. There has to be a thread running right through the organisation that links member to Centre, Centre to Committee and Committee to President, more on that at the Centre reps meeting in a few weeks.

ARC resolves to work on communications at every level, to improve them substantially and to ensure that we hear the voices of every member of ARC.

Can We Have Some More?

Pay has been going nowhere fast for some years now and with the continuing austerity squeeze it is difficult to see that changing, but as time goes on I become increasingly convinced that change it must. The $64,000 question remains how? Progression has gone from the pay system so any approach to improving the position must be based on the economic case for increased reward.

The case must be made that taking no action to end an unequal pay system, which is more and more out of kilter with the reality of the economy in which our members operate, represents an increasing risk to the delivery

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of our business. And as the economy shifts those risks will become more apparent and acute. The Department has a set of stretching targets to deliver the Chancellors avoidance strategy. Avoidance is no longer socially acceptable and tackling the continuing abuse of our tax system is now right at the top of the political agenda; indeed, at a recent PAC conference I attended there were calls for more action on evasion.

We know that to challenge avoidance and evasion effectively, a strategy ARC universally supports, requires an abundance of skilled resource at the right level and in the right place. It requires the resource to organise our counter-avoidance effort and to project-manage those schemes we are taking through the Tribunal process. It requires resource to provide the technical analysis that gets us there in the first place and to investigate and draw out the facts upon which the arrangement is based.

And that is just in the fields of avoidance and evasion.

We see growing external interest in the BEPS project and the need for skilled Transfer Pricing specialists to review how business is organised in that new world. Or how about our skilled CRM’s and Tax Specialist in Large Business without whose effective management of the customer relationship with the country’s top end businesses life would be a great deal more difficult for HMRC and business alike.

These are all, in their differing ways, essential jobs for the organisation and the people with the skills to do those jobs well will be in greater and greater demand in coming years. We are starting to see it already. Many of us know of colleagues in recent months who have moved to the private sector for salaries which far outstrip our own and every single one of those highly skilled people who moves across to the private sector represents a double whammy. The International Issues Manager beside you today could be opposite you tomorrow; all that investment in training, skill, experience and knowledge has passed across the table. You may say that it was always thus but we are reaching a tipping point, exacerbated by the retirement bulge which has not gone away.

ARC and FDA have been here before. Anyone who was around in the eighties, the last time the gap was as wide as it is now, will remember the panic which ensued once the Treasury finally caught up and realised that we were losing people in droves. You might also recall the solutions which finally had to be put in place to address the issue. Surely we do not want to be back there again.

On the equal pay front things continue to look posi-

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“ARC resolves to continue making the case that pay gaps are better addressed now rather than waiting until the damage being done to the business becomes a crisis.” tive; the advice from our solicitors is that our case remains a strong one. It simply cannot be right that we have women in the Civil Service working within a system which has no mechanism for catching up men who are producing work of similar value for greater reward.

Finally in this area we are aware that whilst the trainee market remains buoyant the same cannot be said for the more mature skills market. HMRC finds it increasingly difficult to attract and retain the skills it needs within the pay framework within which we work. The temptation must be there to go for a quick fix by placing recruits on a pay scale with skills or experience supplements. No Union should be against payments for skills or experience and ARC certainly isn’t. However if HMRC does go down such a path two things needs to be understood; the first is that such payments recognise that experience has a monetary value, a monetary value which used to be recognised internally by the application of the progression system; and secondly, that if there is no mechanism to allow people to catch up colleagues employed at something greater than the starting salary for the grade then the equal pay position gets worse.

ARC resolves to continue making the case that pay gaps, wherever they arise, are better addressed now rather than waiting until the damage being done to the business becomes a crisis.

Organise, Organise, Organise These are challenging times for all unions, not least our own. Our membership is ageing and our density is, as a consequence, falling. The natural step when I joined the Inland Revenue many years ago was to sign up for the union and like most of our members I joined pretty much on day one. That is no longer the case for younger people;

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it is no longer axiomatic that people join. In its way I think that is no bad thing, it forces us to re-evaluate our values and to consider what it is that makes our organisation attractive and relevant. Let’s be honest: the opportunity for big wins in the sphere of industrial relations is limited at the moment, so the key is to make sure that we know what members new and old want from us. Passing on the organisation in a healthy state is the key issue of this, and indeed any, Presidency.

We have the results of our member survey and will be publishing these over the next few months; the survey gives us a snapshot of what our current membership look like but tells us nothing of what our prospective colleagues might want from us and that is a gap that we must address. There is a great deal that we can do nationally to demonstrate the value members get from ARC but we need a local face. I have been active in unions for over 30 years and that experience has taught me that the most important rep is the one who is visible and active in the office talking to members and getting things done. That’s why I am working with HMRC to make sure that local reps have an opportunity to engage with our employer on things that affect you locally; things like your accommodation, Health and Safety and staffing issues affecting you in your locations.

But we really do need to be mapping both our current and our potential membership; we need to know where our members are sitting and where the hotspots for recruitment are. We need conversations on the ground and advocates to represent our organisation to prospective future members. Gareth Hills and Paula Houghton are working on this and in a couple of weeks we will be getting all of our Centre Secretaries together as a group to see how we can work better to make our organisation stronger and better connected to our members.

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“Our message has been a consistent one: look what we can deliver for you if you recognise our worth and invest in us.”

<<

ARC resolves to work with you to build a stronger and better organised union at every level.

The Caucus Race This one is a bolt-on certainty, there will be a new government next year, but as yet we cannot be certain what that government will look like or what it will ask us to do.

There is however, one thing that we can rely on and that is the ongoing professionalism of our members. What I do hope, however, is that whatever its political hue it will listen to the voice of a progressive trade union like ARC. We have been delivering for the nation for years and that will certainly not stop now. But any government must recognise that delivery comes at a cost which brings me rather neatly to my next topic.

livelihoods of our members and securing a future for the next generation of HMRC professionals. Over the past months I have had the opportunity to meet with and talk to politicians from the main political parties while colleagues in the wider FDA have been doing the same thing right across government. And I want to make a special mention of the great work that Iain Campbell has been doing with his external Public Understanding of Tax group.

Our message has been a consistent one: look what we can deliver for you if you recognise our worth and invest in us.

ARC will continue its campaigning work to protect the careers and jobs of our members

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Let’s Work Together

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

ARC will carry on with the highly successful campaigning work we have started. We know how Government works; the civil service has worked for it for a very long time. ARC knows what needs to be done to get things done and in the past we have helped to secure the funds needed to deliver the spectacular results you have achieved in recent years whilst protecting the jobs and

What does the future hold beyond next year?

The world as we know it is changing faster and faster and the pace keeps hotting up. Everything that you have read here was first drafted on a tablet on a much delayed commuter train this morning and finished this evening on a laptop in a hotel room in Southwark. We really can work at a distance in ways which were unim-

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“Change is not new but this time it really is different, we are not in Kansas anymore.”

aginable just a few years ago. This morning, when we got moving, it was a distance being reduced at a rate of about 80 miles per hour and whilst I was drafting this I was dealing with emails, phone calls and reviewing documents. I put in two hours productive work before I reached London that I simply could not have done a few years ago. But it goes further. Using the same technology I could just as easily have been arranging a loan from my bank, paying my car insurance, booking a holiday or preparing my SA Return – all done from precisely the same seat on the train or from my desk in the hotel. Much of the country now lives its life in that way and the trend

gets ever faster.

The fact is that HMRC, like the rest of us, needs to recognise and come to terms with those changes and accept that even if, in some alternate reality, it wanted to remain untouched by the digital revolution it would not be a realistic or practical reality so to do. Change is not new but this time it really is different, we are not in Kansas anymore. The changes are technologically and societally led and they are going to happen. They are going to impact on ARC as a collective body and for our members at an individual level. We cannot, as an organi-

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sation, disengage from that reality; to try to do so is as unrealistic an option as was chucking a sabot into a loom.

HMRC’s chosen method for delivering change is the Building our Future project, it is a project that we simply cannot ignore even if we wanted to. To do so would make us irrelevant as individuals and as an organisation and don’t forget that we took action a couple of years back precisely because of a distinct lack of engagement from our employer. We asked for HMRC to engage in grown up dialogue with its people, to empower our members and to return some of the respect which had been taken away from senior leaders in the organisation.

We asked them to engage and having got what we asked for we shouldn’t walk away, but make no mistake; agreeing with the methodology of engagement does not mean that we give up our right to challenge. I want ARC to use its professional voice and I do not care if that is a collective conversation or the voice of one member in a large room.

But what is in it for us beyond being a part of the conversation? Well there are always opportunities to be levered by staying in the room talking. For example; much has been said at BOF 2 about our shrinking estate whilst at the same time HMRC is gearing up to make greater use of modern IT and talking about working at a distance through touchdown bases. How those things will work in practice is not yet clear; however, as the picture develops ARC will make the case that where we have members working in locations that no longer feature in HMRC’s location strategy then there need to be plans in place to allow those members who want to stay to continue in the employ of the organisation.

Touchdown and IT may well be part of the answer to that.

ARC resolves to stitch those conversations together using your collective voice, but that does not mean that you should not also be making the case on a personal basis.

So it’s Goodnight From Me… The New Year and beyond holds challenges for us all, challenges which we are resolved to rise to. But that is for the future, for the present I would like to raise a glass to you and our ARC community; what holds us together remains far stronger than that which might tear us apart.

Whatever you are doing in the Festive period I hope that it is truly lovely for you and yours.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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What has ARC ever done for us? Spencer Munn reports back from a getting to know you meet up with trainees.

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A Tale of Two Ales* *artistic licence may have been applied to the actual number of ales drunk

I

remember my first induction into the world of ARC. It involved a trip to a local drinking establishment, a pint of ale, and an informal conversation with some of the senior leaders within the office. I seem to recall that my second induction involved much the same thing, with the addition of a three-course meal, and I wasn’t the only one to take the metaphorical Queen’s shilling.

It is this social element that we attempt to replicate in our quest to expand ARC membership in the North East.

As the new intake of 2014 Tax Specialist Programme trainees arrived at the office in Benton Park View, Newcastle, there was a buzz on the floor plate. As an office, we had organised a ‘Getting to Know You’ event because of the large influx of new faces from the merger of the former L&C and LBS teams. Everyone was out of their seats, lining the walkway the length of the room, chatting to the person opposite for a couple of minutes before moving on to the next person in line.

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The twelve new trainees in LB, and the five who joined colleagues in SME, were bemused to see the hubbub of noise and activity, and thought it was great that the office was so vibrant. They didn’t join in, as they were understandably more concerned with making sure they would receive their first pay packet as trainees by giving their bank details to HR. However, we didn’t let them hide for very long.

Once HR was dealt with, timetables issued, and bookkeeping manuals distributed, we felt that it was the turn of ARC to welcome the new trainees to the office, and explain what the Union could offer them. We didn’t want to leave this to chance, so settled on a arcnews

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RECRUITMENT MIDDLE MIDDLE three-pronged strategy to woo our potential new recruits.

First came a buffet lunch. We booked a room in the office, and sent out invites to all 17 new trainees, plus interested parties. These included BLMs, tutors, and other trainees, plus members of the ARC local committee and senior leaders – Jeff Brice and Max Hacon – within the office. We ordered enough sandwiches, it seemed, to feed a small army and (learning from previous experience), at least as many miniature cakes!

The turnout was impressive and the level of conversation indicated interest in the activities of the Union, and appetite for information. Max was unfortunately unable to make the event, being somewhat reluctant to curtail his trip around the US, but Jeff gave a warm welcome and convincing pitch for the benefits of joining ARC. Lanyards and mugs were handed out with membership forms in a further attempt to secure a signature from the new trainees.

I was asked some very direct questions along the lines of “What has ARC ever done for trainees?” and “Why would I want to join a Union?”

Luckily, I was able to answer most of these, pointing out recent successes such as ensuring there was a mid-point pay uplift for trainees, mentioning our current work on equal pay, and explaining ARC’s role in the recent pension negotiations. Despite all these questions, people managed to decimate the buffet, betraying at least part of their motives for attending.

The event was a great success, at which we managed to sign up all 17 trainees. However, it’s not enough to get trainees signed up. We want our trainees to be engaged with ARC, to understand and to take part in the discussions we have as a union. So, the second of the threepronged approach was a night out: a meal at an excellent local restaurant and a few drinks afterwards.

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The view from the other side Toby Tremlett

As a very recent graduate (July 2014), when I started work at HMRC in September 2014 I had no previous office work experience and certainly no dealings with unions. However within a few days of starting in the office I had been warmly invited to a lunch meeting with ARC and their representatives. At a trainee welcome event in Manchester I was given the opportunity to sign up and become a member of ARC and so was very keen to be able to meet some other members and get a first-hand perspective of being a member of the union.

The lunch was exactly what I was hoping for, it gave me chance to talk to other ARC members such as Jeff Brice and Julie Blayney and get vivid descriptions

knowing that the ARC President, Tony Wallace, was coming up to talk to the centre. Tony battled the cold Northern conditions, and delays in the British transport system to join us for a great evening out.

Several local committee members were also there to chat about the union and what ARC is doing.

We had a high turn-out; people enjoyed the food, and the drinks afterwards; and I think that the trainees came away with a better understanding of what ARC is about. Tony was able to speak to many of the trainees, helping to give a more personal touch to the union.

The third part of this strategy was encouraging the trainees to attend the local ARC meetings. Following the now-familiar story, we returned to our standard restaurant of choice – Blackfriars – for an impressive, and impressively reasonable, lunch (everyone got food, and what’s more, it was the food they had ordered), followed by the ARC meeting. Many of the trainees who had been out on the night before where there, battling sore heads to a greater or lesser degree, to hear in more detail what Tony had come up to discuss.

of everything ARC has to offer and how useful ARC could be if I became a member. Importantly for me the buffet confirmed that I had made the right decision in joining ARC not only from a work point of view, but also the social side. From the stories Jeff was telling it sounds as if there is scope to have enormous fun within ARC. I was an unfortunate absentee at the recent meal and social event but the message I’ve got from some fellow trainee colleagues who were able to attend was that they had an excellent time and enjoyed the networking this session allowed.

As a member I have every faith that if I ever have need of their services ARC will be there to support me 100%.

Speaking to trainees during and after these events, it is clear that what started as an abstract idea of a Union that they may or may not wish to join, became an important and necessary network of support and social gatherings. Rather than being a distant organisation merely looking for subs, ARC became a very real entity, of which membership was mutually beneficial.

Our activities to recruit new members do not stop at trainees, however.

We have coming up a Carers event, where ARC has managed to arrange a stall, voluntarily manned by local members. We have also held open events on site at Benton Park View, reaching out to staff in roles outside of compliance in particular. We managed to secure a guest speaker in the form of Karen Austwick (one of Committee’s Officers) to share her experience as an ARC member not in a compliance role. This approach was successful, with several active new members recruited. We’re hoping to reach out to further potential members through raising ARC’s profile and, in a similar fashion to the trainees, answer the question “What has the Union ever done for anyone?”

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Christmas Quiz- no prizes, but award yourself a festive treat for every right answer!

According to the PNC financial services group what was the market price of buying all the gifts from the Twelve Days of Christmas song this Christmas?

£17,623

Which carol was declared an “intangible cultural heritage” by Unesco in 2001?

In Holland, St. Nicholas delivers presents to children on which date?

What was the worst British winter on record?

Silent Night

5th December

The Great Frost of 1684 remains the coldest extended period in

English history. The Thames was frozen to a depth of 11 inches for two months.

Who played Ebenezer Scrooge and who played Charles Dickens in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Scrooge: Michael

Caine; Dickens: Gonzo In John Gay’s 1716 poem “Trivia”, how did Doll the apple seller meet her end at a Thames frost fair?

In Dundee the traditional first-footing gift on New Year’s Day was…

Decapitated by ice.

Until the Thirties the usual Dundee gift was a herring

tied with ribbons.

Which ‘80s film was voted by Empire magazine readers in 2010 as “the greatest Christmas movie ever made”?

What is the Night of the Radishes, held in December in Mexico?

Die Hard

A radish carving festival. The radishes are carved to look

like animals, saints and kings.

Who was said to have presented the baby Jesus with Frankincense? Balthazar Where in the world is it traditional to hang a decoration shaped like a spider on the Christmas tree?

Ukraine

Pine needles are said to be a good source of which vitamin? C In which year did the Post Office deliver letters for the last time on Christmas Day in England, Wales and Northern Ireland?

(Scotland ended Christmas Day deliveries a few years later)

1960

Which Christmas No 1 did David Cameron pick on Desert Island Discs?

Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West) by Benny

Hill The first Christmas Broadcast in 1932, and delivered by King George, was written by which author?

Which city were Macaulay Culkin’s film family heading for when they left him Home Alone?

Rudyard Kipling

Paris

Who serves up the figgy pudding in Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’?

Mrs Cratchit In the 19th century, what did “snowbirders”, “snow-hunters” and “snow-riggers” do in winter?

Steal underwear from

washing lines.

Which way do you traditionally stir the Christmas pudding for good luck?

East to West

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What is the chemical formula of snow? H2O In which country was mistle toe first hung as a Christmas decoration?

Britain

Which two states in the US have towns called Christmas? Arizona and Florida Christmas Crackers was the first Christmas edition of which popular UK comedy series? Only Fools and Horses Which US President banned Christmas trees from the White House? Theodore Roosevelt Which Scottish singer/songwriter was born on Christmas Day 1954?

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Annie Lennox

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Colin McHardy looks ahead to the creation of Revenue Scotland.

Your Other National Revenue Authority

F

ollowing a gap of almost three hundred years, the Scottish Parliament was re-established by the 1998 Scotland Act and came back into existence in 1999. Under the initial devolution settlement, apart from the Scottish Variable Rate, a limited power to vary the basic rate of Income Tax, which has never been used, taxes other than local taxes remained reserved to Westminster.

The 2012 Scotland Act modified that position by devolving responsibility for some taxes to the Scottish Parliament, and by providing for the establishment of a Scottish Tax Authority to collect those devolved taxes. In the Scottish Budget statement of 9 October 2014, John Swinney, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, proposed the first Scottish tax rates since the Union of the Parliaments in 1707.

The Scottish Tax Authority, Revenue Scotland, which will initially be based at the Scottish Government site at Victoria Quay in 20

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Edinburgh, will administer and collect these devolved taxes.

The “Scottish” approach to taxation The Scottish approach to taxation follows the principles which Adam Smith, the father of economics, set out in 1776 in his “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”. Adam Smith’s four tax maxims are `` the burden proportionate to the ability to pay `` certainty `` convenience `` efficiency of collection.

The Scottish approach to tax administration and collection is built on the foundations of the Adam Smith maxims, which will sit behind the operation of Revenue Scotland.

The Devolved Taxes The two devolved taxes are Land and arcnews

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Buildings Transactions Tax (LBTT), which will replace Stamp Duty Land tax (SDLT) and Scottish Landfill Tax (SLfT), which will replace Landfill Tax (LfT). Both devolved taxes will become chargeable on 1 April 2015, with the UK equivalent taxes being switched off in Scotland from that date. Appropriate transitional rules and guidance have been developed and published jointly by HMRC and the Scottish Government.

Revenue Scotland Revenue Scotland (RS) is, at time of writing, constituted as an administrative division of the Scottish Government. However from 1 January 2015, Revenue Scotland will be established as a non-Ministerial Department, directly accountable to the Scottish Parliament. Revenue Scotland’s operations will be overseen by a Board, with a Chief Executive in day-to-day charge of an operation consisting of around forty people.

To deliver the devolved taxes and the associated corporate governance, Revenue Scotland’s functions will be organised into three broad areas of “Operations and Compliance”, “Policy and Dispute Resolution” and “Corporate Services”.

In addition, some of Revenue Scotland’s functions in relation to LBTT will be delegated to the Registers of Scotland (RoS) and some of Revenue Scotland’s functions in relation to SLfT will be delegated to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).

Land and Buildings Transactions Tax LBTT, introduced by the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013, replaces SDLT in Scotland. There are significant differences between the two taxes.

While both taxes have different rate bands depending on the value of the transaction, the main difference 21

REVENUE SCOTLAND MIDDLE MIDDLE is that SDLT operates on a “slab” basis while LBTT is progressive.

This means that for SDLT, if a transaction crosses a rate boundary, the entire transaction is charged at the higher rate. This has led to both market distortions and tax avoidance around the rate boundaries.

However for LBTT, the higher rate is only chargeable on the portion of the consideration falling above the rate boundary, which should eliminate avoidance and market distortions around the rate boundaries.

So for SDLT, which currently has a chargeable threshold of £125k for residential property, a sale of a residence for £126k would attract SDLT liability on £126k. However for LBTT, where the proposed residential property chargeable threshold is £135k, a sale of a property for £136k would attract LBTT liability on £1k, not £136k.

The other major difference between LBTT and SDLT is that payment of SDLT can be made up to thirty days after the SDLT return has been made. However for LBTT, payment must be made with the LBTT return. And in cases where there is an LBTT liability, the Registers of Scotland will not register a land transaction unless the LBTT return has been made and “arrangements satisfactory” for payment are in place.

In addition, LBTT is based on Scots property law while SDLT is based on English property law; this has long been a source of difficulty for Scottish practitioners, which will be resolved by the introduction of LBTT.

Scottish Landfill Tax The main difference between SLfT, introduced by the Landfill Tax (Scotland) Act 2014 and its UK equivalent is that in Scotland illegal disposals of waste are liable to SLfT. In the rest 22

of the UK, while illegal dumping can be tackled under non-tax legislation, illegal dumping is not liable to LfT.

Revenue Scotland Tax Powers In addition to the two devolved taxes Acts, there is an overarching Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014 (RSTPA) which sets the framework, enquiry powers, information powers and the like under which Revenue Scotland will operate. The RSTPA fulfils a broadly similar function for Scottish taxes that the Commission-

ers for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 (CRCA) fulfils for UK taxes.

While powers available to HMRC and RS are not dissimilar, there are some significant differences which arise from the “Scottish” approach.

Some of the main differences are: `` there are no statutory clearance provisions in the Scottish tax legislation `` the enquiry window for Scottish tax returns is three years; significantly longer than is available to HMRC `` the RSTPA includes a Scottish General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR), which will be operated

by Revenue Scotland. The Scottish GAAR does not include the “double reasonableness” test which is written into the UK General Anti-Abuse Rule and unlike the UK legislation, there is no external advisory panel to oversee the operation of the Scottish GAAR.

Scottish Rate of Income Tax As well as the taxes devolved in their entirety, the Scotland Act 2012

has given the Scottish Parliament the annual duty to set the Scottish Rate of Income Tax (SRIT), which is expected to apply from 2016, and which will replace the Scottish Variable Rate power conferred by the Scotland Act 1998.

When SRIT applies, the Basic, Higher and Additional rates of Income Tax for Scottish taxpayers will be reduced by 10 pence in the pound and the Scottish Parliament will be obliged to set a new Scottish rate. If that rate should be set at 10 pence in the pound that would mean that Scottish taxpayers would pay the same overall rate as taxpayers in the rest of the UK. A Scottish rate of nine pence in the pound would mean that Scottish taxpayers paid lower overall rates compared to the rest of the UK while a Scottish rate of 11 pence in the pound would mean Scottish taxpayers would pay higher rates compared to the rest of the UK. SRIT will not apply to savings or investment income, so its main relevance will be to employment income and pension income. And devolved income tax powers do not extend beyond rate setting, so Income Tax policy remains with HM Treasury.

Revenue Scotland will not be involved in the administration of SRIT. HMRC will continue to administer and collect income tax in Scotland (via the PAYE system) and will ensure compliance with the Scottish rate of Income Tax, including questions of who is a Scottish taxpayer, on behalf of the Scottish Government.

The Future At time of writing, the Smith commission, which is considering further devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament, has yet to report. However whatever is ultimately decided, it is likely that interesting times are ahead for Revenue Scotland arcnews

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The Case for Engagement

Members of the Yevgeny Panfilov Ballet Studio from Perm perform â&#x20AC;&#x153;Romeo and Julietâ&#x20AC;? Vitebsk, Belarus. Avis De Miranda / Shutterstock.com

John Parkhouse lays it on the line.

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hilst this is not a tale of star crossed lovers, nor is it a tale of my own engagement (which was a long time ago and did have a sort of work connection as I bought the ring whilst on a post-final course in Bath,) it could quite easily be.>>

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The word ‘engagement’ has a few meanings and they are in certain cases conflicting. It can mean a ‘betrothal,’ it could be ‘a pledge, obligation or agreement,’ but equally it can mean ‘an encounter, conflict or battle.’ The latter two definitions sum up our relationship with our employer over the recent year or so.

There seems little point is going over where we were in that relationship a few short months ago, other than saying we were in dispute with our employer and because of that they were not ‘engaging ’ with us, nor us with them, to any meaningful degree. As such we as a Committee were in a very difficult position as we could not represent our membership by discussing issues you raised with us with our employer. Equally, the action we were taking was having little or no effect on the employer. (So this engagement was more in the ‘conflict or battle,’ definition.)

It was an unfamiliar position for us to find ourselves in and one which I personally found very difficult. Whilst I had (and still have,) serious reservations about issues such as PMR, I am an elected representative of my union and to find myself unable to carry out that role was something I found frustrating and left me feeling frustrated.

What we did as a collective group, the ballot to end the dispute is a matter of record but ending our dispute and re-engaging with our employer will only be worthwhile if in the long term it is of benefit to ARC, so I have been thinking about what I would like to see from this process. I must stress this is a personal view, not Committee policy and I set this down as much as a reflective thought piece as anything else. Who knows, it may even get a bit of useful debate going...

For me, engagement has to be a constructive process. The trade union movement is often accused of being a body that likes the sound of its own voice, talking for the sake of it. That may involve a type of engagement but it is not 24

constructive engagement, talking for the sake if it rarely has much use other than to make us feel better (not always a bad thing then!)

Constructive engagement, therefore, also has to be a two-way process. In a negotiating framework that means that not only does each party get to talk, there has to be a willingness from both sides to actually listen; but more than that, to listen and be willing to

act. After all, what is the point in talking otherwise? I am not saying that each party is bound to act as a result of discussions, there will be times when either side in a debate chooses not to act, but they should at least listen.

Finally, engagement should come with a degree of openness. Both sides in any discussion will have their own agendas, their own red lines (I have spent hours in ARC arcnews

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Editorial Credit: Igor Bulgarin / Shutterstock.com

Committee trying find ours on a whole host of issues!) I understand that, but there has to be honesty for any engagement to work.

So how does this map onto our current position? I am hoping that it does, but equally, as there is a time lag between my writing this and you reading it, you never know what might have happened! My views will, inevitably, be affected by the fact that I have been a negotiator

on behalf of ARC for a long time. I have worked with many people on the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;officialâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; side with, in all honesty varying degrees of success. I have seen good negotiators and some not so good; I have had meetings where I felt we were really being listened to and others where I felt we were pretty much being ignored.

So where are we this time around?

In my opinion we are in a better place talking to our employer than

not. We are in a period when we have seen huge issues confronting us as a union. We are facing challenges on many fronts. Consider a few of the current challenges.

Workforce Management This is a subject very close to my heart as I have been involved in it, pretty much, from day one. It also sums up in my mind just how the

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landscape has changed and how we can bring to bear some real influence. Every time the department closes an office it affects every person in that office; and not only that, it affects their families and communities. It has been by discussing these closures and changes with our employer that we have been able to move through this programme with very real influence, making changes where we can and supporting affected members to deal with the changes. We do this by talking to our employer and we can continue to do this now we have settled our dispute with the employer. Without engagement I fear we could not represent our members in this way.

Anyone who has experienced the issues that arise when their office is threatened with closure knows how difficult this time is. Without support I suspect our members would find this process even harder.

Building our Future This is in part linked to workforce management (as it will see a move from one office structure to another with far fewer offices,) but it is more than that. It is a root and branch review of what we do, how we do it and indeed where we do it. The department has begun a programme of meetings to discuss these changes across the whole staff group and I know some members are both suspicious and cynical about this process. I understand why they feel that way, but don’t agree with them. This is a process that will happen, the Building our Future presentations make that clear. It sets out where we would like to be in 2020 and beyond and is seeking staff involvement in shaping how we get there.

This is a huge undertaking and for the department taking this forward in the way it has does not come without some risks. But with every risk comes opportunity and ARC by seeking to become involved in these discussions (both at the events themselves and at a Centre level,) has an opportunity to influence the direction of 26

“Has it led to anything concrete yet? The answer is currently probably no, but that does not mean it is a strategy that has failed. It is early days yet and we are still, in part, playing catch-up from the days when we were in dispute.” travel. As I say above, these changes will happen and I would much rather we influence them than bury our heads in the sand and pretend they are not happening. These changes will affect our members in terms of the work they do and the places they do it, we would do those members affected adversely by theses changes a huge disservice if we did not engage in the process just as much as if we failed to support them as these processes take place.

Finally I want to talk about PMR. Again I know what an emotive subject this is; it is one of the reasons why we as a union voted to take strike action and one which still worries our membership. We have had to enter into these discussions with a very clear set of guidelines.

For example the department is not willing to discuss the issue of guided distribution with us, but these restrictions are not to my mind sufficient for us to not discuss PMR issues with the employer. ARC has not and will not agree the underlying principles of PMR whilst it contains guided or forced distribution but that does not mean that we do not serve our members’ interests by seeking changes to a system we do not agree with. It is by entering into such discussions that we can try to influence how the system is operated and clarify what our members and managers can expect from it and for that reason alone those

discussions have to be worthwhile.

But while in the above I set out reasons why we should engage, this engagement would be pointless if in turns it was a one-way conversation. We as a Committee asked you to end our dispute so that we could engage with our employer.

We did so in the expectation that if we engaged with our employer, they would in turn engage with us.

Has that happened? I think it has.

We are now not just sitting round the table in discussions with our employer at the highest level but we are doing so in a very different way.

We are no longer being told what the employer has decided to do; we are being invited at an early stage to discussions to influence decisions before they are taken. To look critically at issues with a view to using the information provided by you to change and influence things.

Has it led to anything concrete yet? As I write the answer is currently probably no, but that does not mean it is a strategy that has failed. It is early days yet and we are still, in part, playing catchup from the days when we were in dispute. What I can say from my standpoint at the heart of our organisation is that we are talking and we are talking in an open honest and constructive way. I honestly believe that is the right thing to do as it is the thing that best represents all of us across our membership. I also believe that we will start to see the fruits of re engagement very soon and as soon as we can we look forward to sharing that news with you.

Do I expect everyone to agree with me? No of course I don’t, and I would welcome debate on the subject. Equally, any process of re engagement will work best if you give Committee not just the space to work in but keep raising the issues that matter to you via your Centres. Only by knowing the issues that matter can we raise them and deal with them on your behalf arcnews

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Eugene Mitchell, ARC’s new Treasurer, lays down some principles and has a suggestion to make about arcnews.

You don’t have to see it to believe it. hy has there never been a disabled candidate on The Apprentice?” asks the headline of an article on the BBC News website. The article is part of “Ouch” which describes itself as going behind the headlines of disability news and lifting the lid on the little details about being disabled which are not widely talked about. It goes on to pose the question “The Apprentice is back on television screens for its 10th series but there has never been a visibly disabled person on the programme. Why?” The article claims that disabilities do not get the same level of representation in the programme as other protected characteristics such as gender, sexuality and race, or the non-protected characteristics such as regional 28

demographics and social backgrounds. I’ve no doubt the article is well meaning – it’s written by someone who has a connection with disability – but it highlights a very real issue that those with invisible disabilities face; because people cannot see it they either forget it or dismiss it.

The fact is we can never know whether or not disabilities have been properly represented on The Apprentice because we simply can’t know if any of the candidates is disabled in a way which is not obvious or visible. In fact, research suggests disabled people are afraid to be open about their disabilities and employers are afraid of getting it wrong. I am guilty of this to some extent - HMRC knows about my disability, but I am in no way open about the full effects it has on me. I need to be. We need to be.

15 years ago last month I was spear tackled playing rugby and was left with damage to my neck which causes pain and reduced arcnews

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sensation/grip and damage to my brain which causes other issues.

Although the pain makes me grumpier than I otherwise would be, and the lack of grip means I get through more glasses and cups than a normal person should, it doesn’t have so much of an impact.

Some days my patience is easily tested and I have to be aware of how that impacts on others but that’s it really for the pain.

The bigger issue for me is the lasting impact of the damage to my head. My brain bounced around the inside of my skull which gave me lots of little scars – somewhat like a hardboiled egg when you’ve hit it with the teaspoon.

The scarring left me with Epilepsy (although this is now controlled by lifestyle rather than medication – which means no beer for me), problems with processing things from short term to long term memory, and (because my body is controlling the seizure threshold) an increased amount of fatigue, made worse because I want to achieve in spite of my injury. I set myself targets and goals I probably wouldn’t have set myself were I not living with these issues because I want to prove to myself, and to others, that I can still deliver. In some ways I’m my own worst enemy.

I manage some of it by flexible working – I work at home two days a week – which helps, a lot, yet I still lose a significant portion of my weekend to bed. However, what that cannot even begin to manage is the issues with my memory, the days when it takes me about 15 minutes to remember how to tie my shoelaces, or the blank look on my face on the bad days as I try to work out exactly what I was just asked.

Some days I do inconvenient arcnews

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things such as putting my keys or Oystercard in the fridge. Other days my memory problems are far more serious. For example, I bought myself a whistling kettle that goes on the hob and, on return from work one day, I put it on to boil. I forgot to put the whistle in the spout. I popped upstairs for something and I got distracted – I completely forgot the kettle was on the hob and of course nothing whistled to tell me otherwise. The kettle boiled dry and the smoke alarms began to sound. I got annoyed at the alarm – because I failed to realise it was my alarm and wanted whoever the alarm belonged to, to shut it up – and decided it was probably time for a brew. I went out of my room to find a not insubstantial amount of black smoke, that it was my smoke alarm, and that the enamel on the kettle had melted and was a little bit alight. It is funny now, but it shows just how big a lapse in memory I can have and that it could have ended in a much more serious way.

So why is my lack of domestic health and safety relevant to this article? Well, it’s embarrassing – I’ve only told a few people about it. I should live and work in a society where I don’t feel embarrassed to tell people I almost set my house on fire because I forgot I was boiling the kettle and that, deep down, it scared me a bit. But I don’t. I live and work in a society where that is more likely to be mocked or pitied than understood and accepted.

It also illustrates rather well how poor my memory is – as soon as the kettle was out of sight I completely forgot about it. Yet, when I lose my words at work and, embarrassed, I try to explain that my memory is poor I am invariably met with “oh, I forget things too. Everyone does.”

It’s true – everyone does forget things – but throw away comments trivialise something that is actually significantly life-changing for me. It isn’t that person’s fault. It is often said with the best of intentions (just like the article) but it belies an unconscious bias that because someone does not look disabled they cannot be. If anything, the responsibility lies with me to speak up and to say “when you tell me everyone has memory problems like mine so not to worry it upsets and frustrates me because I know they don’t.” But I don’t because to do so is to admit to myself that, despite giving the impression to people that there is nothing much wrong with me, I did get the Oystercard out of the fridge this morning and shoes aren’t as easy as I would like.

And why does any of this matter? It matters because it shouldn’t matter at all.

It matters because I should stand up and say “I may be disabled, but I am also able and it is the able that counts”. Living with what I now have to live with has forced me to develop skills and coping strategies which make me effective with my work, but I keep these largely hidden. I have notes, project plans, risk registers, post-its, coloured pens and mind-maps a plenty. I have organised the organising.

True, it’s organised chaos and you wouldn’t know to look at me that it’s going on but it has given me, in civil service speak, the ability to project manage to ensure delivery at pace. I highly doubt I would ever have learned to if I didn’t have to.

And finally it matters because people shouldn’t make assumptions.

They shouldn’t assume that my memory is just as bad as theirs, that I’m just dealing with the average

memory issues b and that telling m make it better. T a lot of things. I where someone ryone else, every self thinking the or disengaged th may be suffering invisible disabili mental health is ficult for them t ing and it may b them to have co There is no rea ability to remain all play our part open and suppor

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Eugene Mitchell

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The year in SCS

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nother year gone, another record breaking performance by the department, another round of pay awards, another load of greater expectations, and another year on the same salary as 2009 for many of us. Plus ça change.

As the 2014 SCS pay award letter says “we can’t resolve all our pay challenges and this year’s approach [which was identical to the previous year’s approach] means there are individuals who will face another year without any increase to their base pay, but I hope you understand the reasons for this.” Frankly, I understand what the letter says – and therefore I understand the “reasons” – but that doesn’t mean that I accept that the reasons are appropriate.

This time round I can’t even summon up the enthusiasm to do the sums. My note about bonuses from last year still stands: “The amount paid out in August in bonuses is sufficient to have awarded everyone other than low performers over £2,500 each. The argument that bonuses at the levels actually paid help boost performance is totally fatuous when the system of assessing both performance expectations and performance delivered is so opaque.” As a disappointed, and disillusioned, colleague said to me recently “how are these bonuses distributed? Where do they go and what for?” At least if we’re serious about improving performance within the SCS let’s have some transparency about what people have done to achieve these so the rest of us know what to aim for.

Thankfully this year’s letter, unlike last

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year’s, didn’t claim we are rewarding performance across the SCS. I’m writing this on my return from facilitating at one of the Building Our Future phase 2 events for Grades 6 and 7. Despite my dissatisfaction over pay and reward arrangements I’m really enthused about the whole BOF process. It’s a great opportunity for all of us to listen, and to be listened to. Given that every ARC member is in a leadership position in the department I hope, and I expect, that we will all contribute positively to the ongoing conversation.

Given the size of our organisation there has to be some process around the BOF conversations. Of course it’s really important that the imposition of that discipline doesn’t mask the issues we face as an organisation. I think the willingness of the department to publish the compilation of the feedback from BOF 1, and that that in turn is driving the agenda for future phases, really demonstrates a changed approach and a real determination to listen.

That’s certainly a message that I try to get out as often as possible.

But HMRC needs to be aware that the issues and concerns identified through BOF 1 are not the only significant issues and concerns that our people have. There’s a nice bar chart that shows the significant topics identified during the phase 1 events.

There is no mention of pay there and there is no mention of PMR. I’ve heard it suggested, at a very senior level, that because these don’t feature it must mean that they aren’t issues.

I do hope that’s not a seriously held view. They don’t feature because they were scoped out of phase 1

discussions. There is no doubt that these are significant issues for many of us. If they weren’t significant issues there would have been no consideration of industrial action; there would have been no industrial action.

I considered pay earlier. On PMR intuitively it doesn’t seem right that more effort seems to be spent on consistency checking and validation meetings than on coaching and developing individual members of staff. It can’t be right when there is a perception that hitting a rigid guided distribution is an end in itself, rather than improving the organisational performance. So what can be done? No reasonable person could hold that performance management is an unreasonable thing for any organisation to pursue. But the language we use in our categorisation of performance is so unnecessarily inflammatory and pejorative. Of course it’s right to say that someone “must improve” if their performance falls short of what is reasonably expected of them and there are no extenuating circumstances. That’s what our managing poor performance procedures are for. But to automatically badge 10% of fairly arbitrarily defined groups as MI is unnecessarily divisive. In a world of continuous improvement, of having always to do more with less and less, we all must seek to improve, not just 10% of us.

So can we change this language please? There’s no denying that some people perform better than others, for all sorts of reasons. But if we have to categorise people into performance bands can’t we use less emotive language? As the Jackson 5 said, it’s easy as ABC, 1 2 3… arcnews

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Julie Blaney

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Trainee update Success for our legal trainees

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RC has been discussing the issue of legal trainee pay over a number of years with HMRC’s Solicitors Office and the GLS. Historically pupil barristers were taken on for one month’s compulsory “work experience” during September, before being their training (pupilage) with HMRC on October 1. They lost out on one month’s employment rights including pay, sick leave, pension contributions etc and received only £200 per week “expenses”. ARC successfully argued that this was not an acceptable way to reward what was, in reality, employment. From this year, HMRC’s pupil barristers’ employment has started on day one. ARC is very pleased to have negotiated away this historic unfairness. We continue to fight for fair pay generally – legal trainee rates of pay having had no more than a 1% increase in any year for around a decade. This means that they are now hugely out of kilter with other respectable training contract providers, when they used to be broadly comparable.

being based at Longbenton in Newcastle my training centre is in Leeds, and the events were also very useful to meet the rest of the training group.

In the office the transition coming from SI into Large Business has been seamless; mainly down to the friendly welcome that was received from Senior Managers, other trainees, support teams etc, but I must also mention the welcome we have received from ARC. A cracking welcome event from ARC reps within the office was gratefully received, with plenty of goodies, mugs, lanyards and pens to boot (we’re easily pleased). The TSP2014 trainees all seem very friendly, and a few familiar faces have made my own move far more comfortable.

All-in-all it’s been a very informative introduction, and the real work is now coming our way in the form of bookkeeping and the odd piece of casework; I may not be so enthusiastic come exam time, but I’ll wait and see!

And finally, Congratulations!

TSP first impressions

by Phil Tinkler

I

started on the TSP2014 programme on September 11 and, having joined the programme as an internal candidate of ten years’ service, I was quite well informed as to what would be happening over the course during the next four years.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect of the first couple of weeks which although were intended for everyone, seemed to be geared towards people with no prior knowledge of the department. However I have to say that the welcome and induction events gave everyone a very good foundation of what was to be expected. Although

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n November 14, 35 TPDP2010 trainees were promoted to G7! HMRC needs these staff, and I have sympathy for those involved in negotiating their placements! I have already heard rumours of approaches made to some of these staff by the Big 4, it will be interesting to see how many of this merry bunch of new G7’s we retain. Congratulations to all of you, and enjoy seeing your new salary in the bank on New Year’s Eve! 31

Helen Baird-Parker comes bearing gifts – updates to the equality resolutions at this year’s conference in May.

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Equality updates

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t conference this year, there were five motions with an equality theme. Three of these concerned PMR, and the other two concerned Equal Pay. The motions form the backbone of my work in these areas for the year. This article is to inform you of the work underway to progress them.

PMR

Resolution 11 was a committee motion. It covered a range of aspects of the PMR system. The equality parts were as follows: …However, the current approach to performance management across the civil service and adopted by HMRC is driven by an obsession with delivering quotas of alleged poor performers, regardless of actual performance, is overly bureaucratic, opaque on outcomes and consistently produces results that are detrimental to those with protected characteristics. The result is a discredited system that is viewed as an imposition

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based on political dogma and has failed to deliver the confidence of managers or staff.

Be equality proofed and free from disproportionate and discriminatory impact on protected groups or individuals with protected characteristics.

Resolution 12 was from South West Centre. It read as follows: That this AGM notes the outturn in midyear Performance Management markings and the detriment groups with shared protected characteristics appear to be suffering and instructs Committee to ensure that ExCom puts in place measures that ensure that no individual is detrimentally affected by PMR as a result of a protected characteristic.

Resolution 13 was from Manchester Centre. It read as follows: That this AGM is concerned with the constant abuses by HMRC of its own guidelines

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regarding the implementation and operation of PMR and ExCom’s reticence to acknowledge the reality of forced distribution. It therefore instructs Committee to continue to improve its data gathering of such abuses, visibly directing this from the Centre, and use the examples to discredit this disastrous system even further.

What has the ARC equality team been doing to implement these resolutions?

Since the dispute ended, we’ve been able to participate in discussions about PMR again. In November, Tony Wallace and I agreed a new framework for dialogue with HMRC to ensure that equality is front and centre at all levels of the business. Regular consultation will take place with the specialist HMRC Diversity and Inclusion team, with local reps in the lines of business, through working closely with the HMRC diversity networks, with regular discussions with the DG Diversity Champions, and where necessary, with HMRC’s pay policy team (of which more later). We have recently set up a network of local Equality Officers, who through our renewed equality consultation framework with the department, will be empowered to review local statistics and to deal with issues on the ground. They will have an escalation route through me to the centre,

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and to the specialist HMRC team.

issues in particular business areas.

So what of PMR? Members will be aware that the out turns for the first year showed some worrying swings in representation between staff with protected characteristics and those without.

ARC had the opportunity to review and discuss the KAI initial analysis prior to publication and to discuss how we could explore and understand the statistics better. We have probed the results because what they showed us was sometimes counterintuitive, and the impacts in different lines of business were not uniform. Members will be aware from my forum updates that the factors most strongly associated with a bottom box marking, or failure to get a top box marking, are sickness absence and age. However, different areas of the business have different workforces, issues, and perhaps different management ethos, and so it perhaps understandable that we are seeing different factors in different lines of business. It also appears that the stats within smaller business areas which make up the larger directorates reflect different equality impacts. For example, I know from having explored the issues in my own line of business that the results were not consistent with the wider Corporate Services group. What this means is that ARC has a lot of work to do locally, to understand particular

So what are we doing at the centre?

One of the biggest problems we have in understanding the equality impact of PMR is that we just don’t have very good reporting of protected characteristics. Some business areas are better than others. Unfortunately we can’t really say what the extent of the problem is because levels of reporting are so low. It’s quite possible that the scale of the problem is masked. HMRC may well argue (and have done so in some areas) that we can’t definitely say that there is any equality issue at all because the levels of reporting are so low. ARC has been working with the department to encourage people to complete their diversity data over a number of years, which has recently culminated in the messages you will all have received from your own DG. As set out in membership updates 22 and 37, ARC entirely supports this initiative. This remains a controversial topic for many members – but with disclosure as low as 50% in some areas, we’re much less able to challenge the equality impact of PMR. This isn’t something where you can just rely on enough of your colleagues doing it instead – we need everyone. If you don’t want to declare – please take the active choice of “choose not to declare” rather than just not doing anything at all. We can’t know otherwise.

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LAST The ARC team will now continue to work with the department to feed into the next stage of the KAI analysis. We have made suggestions as to how we can analyse sickness absence better, and we await the next steps of the analysis with interest. I’ve discussed the age disparity with the age champion Edward Troup, and I am looking forward to picking up the other issues in my next round of meetings with the other Diversity Champions. This issue will continue to be at the forefront of our discussions with HMRC’s Diversity and Inclusion team.

I continue to receive reports from members about particular issues they have faced related to their own circumstances and protected characteristics which have been a factor in their PMR. I always take these reports back to HMRC. Please continue to get in touch with the ARC equality team. If there are any members who are willing to be identified to senior people in HMRC as evidence of issues in the PMR system, this makes for exceptionally powerful evidence. I understand though that often the last thing people want is to risk undermining their position at work even further – so please be assured that you can speak to ARC in complete confidentiality, unless you say otherwise.

Equal Pay

At Conference, there were two motions about Equal Pay. Resolution 20 was from Bristol Centre and read: That this AGM recognises and supports ARC’s continuing efforts towards achieving equal pay for all members, and timeous reward for those who complete the various Tax Professional Training programmes.

Nevertheless there appears to be a considerable number of ARC members who are suffering the inequity of being paid at a rate which is considerably less than: Colleagues doing identical work, and The pay maximum (in many instances only just above the minimum rate) and have been for a number of years.

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The absence of progression pay for some time, as well as being unfair, is affecting morale.

Pay comparisons with the private sector suggest that members’ reward for allegiance to HMRC is to become worse off in both comparison to the private sector and inflation. These morale and comparison points may lead to even more members leaving HMRC to take the more attractive rewards offered

by Large Accountancy firms and other Private Sector Employers.

Whilst this AGM recognises that the Government’s austerity measures mean that HMRC is unlikely to immediately reinstate progression pay, this AGM also recognises members’ very real concerns over the issue and in particular the continuing refusal of HMRC to honour its previous commitments with regard to progression pay from minimum to maximum within eight years.

This AGM instructs Committee to raise the issue with the employer at every opportunity, highlighting the continuing impact on morale and the very real risk that such a policy will result in HMRC losing more of its committed, skilled and professional workforce.

Resolution 23 was from the West Midlands Centre and read: That this AGM notes with some dismay Bob Kerslake’s words (in his blog) that make it clear progression pay is to be a thing of the past for all Civil Service Departments. We urge Committee to agree with ExCom, before the end of 2014, how to properly reward staff for the work they have done at the grade and the experience they have built up.

We also recognise the work being done on equal pay and ask that this continues, with more cases being taken if possible covering other areas (such as age).

I’m really glad to be able to deliver this important work on behalf of ARC members. We well know that lack of pay progression is having a severe impact on our goodwill, our morale, and our pockets.

We’re aware that valuable newly

trained and recruited G7s are fleeing the Department in large numbers because there’s no prospect of ever getting a pay rise. Not only is our pay unfair – in our view it’s unlawful because it’s unequal.

The Equal Pay cases of our 34 claimants are moving forward as planned. As I’ve said before, this litigation takes a long time! The way these cases tend to work is that the Tribunal will deal with evidential issues separately, one at a time, because if the first evidential hurdle is not met, there is little sense moving onto the next – and the case would just be knocked out at that stage.

ARC has been granted a hearing of the first evidential point – whether there is particular disadvantage suffered by women in HMRC’s pay system. ARC has presented professional statistical analysis of the pay data supplied by HMRC to the Tribunal. This evidence is extremely powerful, and in ARC’s view, clearly supports our case that not only is there disadvantage, but the pay freeze and cap is exacerbating it. ARC has been granted a hearing to determine this point which will take place next year. Whilst this is extremely positive, this is only one of the initial steps in our claim. Having established particular disadvantage, the Tribunal would still need to determine whether the pay system is justifiable.

I’m so grateful for the support of members in this area. At this stage we’re not looking to lodge further Tribunal cases, because our priority is to progress these cases, but we have plenty of you waiting in the wings should we need to call on you to volunteer. Our hope is that these cases will bring HMRC back to the table for a sensible renegotiation of our pay. This will benefit everyone – not just the 34 women.

It’s possible that in due course we will explore other categories of disadvantage such as age, because it’s certainly true that our generally younger members have never had the benefit of any pay progression, and so languish at the bottom of the pay scale with no way to catch up to their generally older colleagues who are carrying out identical work. For now though, the focus is on our 34 cases, and I’ll continue to update you as we progress

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PUZZLE PAGE 2

Buzz Word Search*

Hidden in the grid are 22 words or phrases that make little to no sense but are in common use around an office near you. Words and phrases may be vertical, horizontal or diagonal and run left to right, right to left, up and down. Where phrases are used the spaces have been removed.

Find as many as you can, answer next issue. Unfortunately, due to efficiency savings there is no prize going forward, but regard this a probortunity and reward yourself with an after eight. * see what we did there? (quizmaster: Julie Blayney) arcnews

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