HMRC has now published its pay offer. The employer has chosen to limit pay to stay within the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance for 2025. This gave HMRC a ‘pot’ of around £90 million for pay rises, made up of 3.25% plus the option of a further 0.5% “to be targeted at specific departmental workforce issues”.
Such a low remit doesn’t address low pay, doesn’t address the cost-of-living crisis and doesn’t address pay lost as a result of government imposed pay freezes and pay caps over years. RPI inflation was 4.4% in June 2025 when the HMRC pay settlement date fell. It means that most HMRC members will suffer real terms pay cuts again this year. This reinforces the importance of building a serious campaign across HMRC and the whole union to win our national pay demand for a 10% pay rise and pay restoration to reverse the erosion of members’ wages.
We need a national campaign on pay. A strategy to build this campaign was agreed at the PCS Annual Delegate Conference 2025 – motion A383. This called on PCS to “proceed to a ballot by no later than mid-September 2025 if there is not satisfactory progress made to meeting our demands”.
The current Left Unity led National Executive Committee (NEC) has no interest in building a campaign. June and July were wasted by the NEC. Instead of preparing members for a fight, pay negotiators were instructed to enter pay discussions at departmental level, therefore immediately diluting our ability to go back to the Government nationally to demand more money. Despite the NEC agreeing that August should be used to speak with activists and members about a campaign, there is little sign of much activity and even less signs of the serious work required to build support for a national ballot in September.
The HMRC Group Executive Committee (GEC), which includes members of the Broad Left Network, must continue to provide the leadership required to build the necessary campaign to win on pay in HMRC. In July, the GEC agreed to run a “multi-stranded union campaign” on seven major issues affecting members, including pay. The GEC are taking steps to be prepared on each of these. Broad Left Network members on the GEC supported this approach.
However, it is crucial that the GEC learn from the mistakes of Left Unity and do not repeat them. Yes, we must organise meetings to discuss with members but it is vital that we use these meetings to set out proposals for a serious campaign, capable of winning and test this approach with members. This will give confidence to members.
The Broad Left Network calls on the HMRC GEC to agree a fighting strategy to win. The GEC needs to set clear activities and a timescale to ensure we can win a statutory ballot in 2025 if HMRC is unwilling to agree to PCS demands, which are to fight for:
Pay
- A fully consolidated pay rise of at least 10%
- £18 per hour minimum wage
- Pay restoration for money lost since 2010
- London pay entitlement of at least £5,000
- All fully funded centrally and not at the expense of jobs or conditions.
Jobs
- Oppose privatisation – End the planned pilot of the Managed Service Provider;
- End the use of Brook Street labour and give permanent posts to all those that want one.
- Insourcing of Facilities Management and Security staff;
- No cuts to the CSG headcount.
Working conditions
- Implement a four day working week with no loss of pay;
- End mandatory office attendance expectations;
- Ensure correct grading – we should all receive the proper remuneration for the work we do;
- End the long hours culture – ensure all workloads are manageable;
- Introduce a collective agreement to protect members from micromanagement;
- Rebuild Employee Relations in HMRC – ensure meaningful consultation with PCS at all levels.
We call on branches in HMRC to organise member meetings to discuss these demands and the campaign required to win them. We must prepare PCS members for the battle ahead.
Join the Broad Left Network (www.bln.org.uk) and stand with us.
PCS Broad Left Network 