A trade union has warned of “huge issues” with HMRC plans to migrate hundreds of jobs in Dundee to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
The tax authority will transfer the majority of its 462 staff at Sidlaw House in tranches to DWP jobs dealing with the new universal credit benefit.
The workers will remain at Sidlaw House as DWP will be taking over the office, with the transfers to begin in 2018/19 and scheduled for completion in 2020/21.
However, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) claims the changes in Dundee do not offer up sufficient job security for staff.
David Lardner, the union’s branch secretary in Dundee, said: “On the face of it, it is good news, but it doesn’t offer the security that is being implied.
“Universal Credit across the UK is facing problems with one in 10 job centres across the country set to close.
“There are huge issues about moving over to DWP with more closures only announced a few weeks ago.
“For those pencilled in to transfer, there is uncertainty from lack of information from the department relating to transfer timetable, terms and conditions, and what the actual job roles will entail.
“Moving in tranches also has huge concerns as the pay is less and the transitional period means that employees’ pay could be frozen.”
The plans are part of an organisational shake-up by HMRC, which, in 2015, announced it planned to move staff into 13 regional centres across the UK, resulting in office closures across the country.
In Scotland, these regional offices are in Glasgow and Edinburgh with supporting sites in Gartcosh and East Kilbride.
The organisation claims the move is to deliver “better, more modern services to customers” and make it “harder for the dishonest minority to cheat the system”.
The changes have impacted another HMRC office in Dundee with Caledonian House set to close in 2018, resulting in 34 of 108 employees being offered voluntary redundancy.
Around 60 of the remaining employees will transfer to Sidlaw House to join staff in the move to DWP, with a small number moving to the organisation’s new regional offices in Edinburgh or Glasgow.
A spokewoman for HMRC said: “In November 2015 we said that most of our staff in Sidlaw House would transfer to DWP to work on universal credit. This is because the majority of people there currently work in Tax Credits.
“HMRC’s current staffing figure for Sidlaw House is 462 full-time equivalent posts, and we expect the majority of them to transfer gradually to DWP from 2018 to 2021. We intend to hold individual discussions with any staff not transferring so that we can identify the support required.”
