Personnel Management. Internal Auditing Service. Labour Relations

Transcription

1 Internal Auditing Service Personnel Management In the Tax Agency, personnel management is handled by the Human Resources and Economic Administration Department, whose aim for 2002 was to rationalise the department s structure and legal framework, improve working conditions, introduce professional career measures and modernise the department s management. One of the leading achievements of the year was the introduction for the first time ever of on-line processing for human resource management procedures. An online personnel registry was created for this purpose (Decision of 23 July 2002), through which, using the Human Resources Panel corporate computer application, civil servants and contract employees of the Tax Agency can lodge requests and other documents in a whole series of procedures: announcements of job opportunities available through examination or unconditional appointment; announcements on how to join the different corps of civil servants, or how to earn corps speciality ratings; announcements of aid under the social action plan; announcements of training courses; and per diems and expenses in city and inter-city travel. In May of 2002, the Human Resources Panel was saluted with the Ministry of Public Administrations annual Award for Good Practices in the General State Administration. Another important event of the year was the process of integrating civil servants from the former Public Finance Management Corps into the new Technical Corps of the Exchequer, which is attached to the Tax Agency, and the other Technical Corps created by Act 24/2001 (the Technical Corps of Auditing and Accounting and the Technical Corps of Cadastre Management). On the date when the old Public Finance Management Corps became extinct (1 January 2002), it had 10,572 civil servants in its six specialities. The act envisaged certain channels for automatically shunting civil servants into the new corps and provided for other events where the civil servant concerned would have to apply to join the new corps. In other cases the civil servant would have to choose the corps he or she was going to join. All this has required a lot of process management work, which ended with 8,653 civil servants joining the Technical Corps of the Exchequer. Labour Relations The Tax Agency has kept its labour relations in the same line that it consolidated long ago, which is based on and pursues a climate of stable negotiation with the leading trade unions. The new twist in 2002 was that the agreements signed in previous years about professional careers in Groups B, C and D had been concluded, so the negotiation process was looked at no longer from the horizontal perspective, but from the standpoint of rationalisation and improved working conditions in general, whilst at the same time entertaining issues that could affect specific collectives or functions at the Tax Agency. Two major hubs of action in this context are: - Action in the general framework of labour relations, implemented at different bargaining tables looking at the more important aspects of working life in the Tax Agency: the work year, general criteria for the application of variable compensation, training, social action, occupational health and union guarantees. 125

2 - The implementation of the collective bargaining agreement currently in force for the non-civil servant employees of the Tax Agency, in the shape of internal promotion agreements and the fostering of the process of employment consolidation started in years before. In this context, the Agency had 50 meetings with the different groups of trade union negotiators in 2002, plus a raft of preparatory meetings. As a consequence, Tax Agency/trade union agreements were signed concerning the social action plan, the rendering of services during the 2001 income tax campaign, professional promotion and other measures involving non-civil servant employees, plus the application of the Administration/trade union agreement of 13 November 2002 within the Tax Agency s realm. Some of the agreements referring to the Tax Agency s non-civil servant employees include the announcement of 533 internal advancement opportunities, which have an impact on 19.7% of the employee collective and 21 job categories in different functional areas of the current collective bargaining agreement. Other pay-related issues were also tackled; productivity modules for compliance with objectives were increased for those job categories that had no specific complement for productivity, and a new complement was created in special highresponsibility jobs for the executive chief category. The time control management system was rolled out in all Tax Agency workplaces in The system involves the standardisation of schedule types and incident excuses; the preparation of a management procedure for the time control system; the development of the security and time control application, equipped with an on-line system for managing incidents and gathering data from other Human Resources applications; and the preparation of standard monthly reports tracking the main parameters of compliance with scheduled working days and hours. Occupational Health The Tax Agency Occupational Risk Prevention Service centred its work during 2002 on risk evaluation, expanding medical service, starting up the procedure for investigating occupational accidents and illnesses and improving the system of annual medical checkups (which is decentralised) and the flu vaccination programme for Tax Agency personnel. The Service performed an analysis to evaluate the occupational risks involved in 5,000 jobs in the bureaus and administrations of the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Ceuta, Gerona, Granada, Lérida, Murcia and Seville and the headquarters of the Special Bureau in Madrid. It also put together reports on those risk evaluations and the evaluations conducted the year before (which examined 2,000 jobs) and got those reports on the desks of the persons in charge of the different bureaus so that they were informed and could take steps agreementingly to correct the problems the Service had sniffed out. Lastly in the risk evaluation field, the procedure was begun for contracting in the third and final phase of the analysis of the rest of the jobs at the Tax Agency in Important training action was also taken on this subject. All throughout 2002 the procedure for investigating occupational accidents and illnesses was disseminated to all the Departments and Special Bureaus. A training process was begun, with the goal of standardising what information each unit has to reflect in its investigation and how to investigate the causes of occupational accidents and illnesses. 126

3 Programming and Provision of Jobs Employment planning and programming work was carried on regularly in 2002, its most immediate result being the preparation of a proposed public offering of employment at the State Tax Administration Agency in 2003 and changes in the Agency s Job List. The year 2002 saw the announcement of six competitions to fill a total of 2,290 vacancies (464 of them for promotions). Each competition addressed a different collective and a total of 7,121 people applied. The competitions that were wound up resulted in the appointment of 3,869 persons; 3,722 of the appointees were already with the Agency and had to leave their old positions to take up their new posts. A number of competitions was also held to cover jobs that the Agency was at liberty to award to whatever applicants it deemed best instead of on the basis of competitions amongst all qualified candidates. Two hundred forty jobs were offered under this system, and 199 were filled. As in years before, temporary help was hired to provide support during the 2001 income tax campaign, where a total of 1,251 jobs were offered. Training The reference framework for all the Tax Agency s training activity is the Decision of the Directorate-General of the Tax Agency of 29 December 1999 establishing training objectives and policies in the Tax Agency up to 31 December On 27 December 2002 a new Decision was handed down that follows in its predecessor s tracks and lays down the guidelines for training during the period. As in years before, training activity was implemented through two Training Plans, one funded entirely from the Tax Agency s budget, and the other subsidised by the National Public Administration Institute (INAP) using credit assigned for continuous training in public administrations. Every year the Tax Agency s Training Plan covers more actions than the year before. However, the number of students has dropped significantly due to the impact of training action that was performed in 2001 (and mentioned in the Annual Report for that year) to show personnel how to put together self-protection handbooks; 12,580 employees participated in this activity. In ,905 students attended 46,422 hours of classroom instruction, with a total of 674,956 hours spent in training at a cost of 4,118, euros. The total expenditure necessitated by the Continuous Training Plan came to 703, euros, which was 154, euros more than the INAP subsidy of euros. The difference was funded by the Tax Agency s budget. Through this Plan, 12,109 students attended 11,760 hours of classroom instruction. A total of 144,386 hours was spent in training. Therefore, altogether, in ,014 students participated in the training activities carried out under the Agency s two plans, with 58,182 hours of classroom time and a total of 819,342 hours of training. The expense of running all this training activity amounts to 4,822, euros. The table below compares the figures for the different parameters over the last two years. 127

4 TABLE No 87 TAX AGENCY TRAINING ACTIVITIES Parameter Continuous Training Tax Agency Training Plan Total Plan % % % Number of students 64,917 54, ,321 12, ,238 67, Number of classroom 45,728 46, ,154 11, ,882 58, hours Number of hours spent 631, , , , , , Total Expenditure ( ) 3,809,836 4,118, ,467 (1) (1) INAP subsidy: 540, euros (2) INAP subsidy: 549,205 euros Source: Human Resources and Economic Administration Department 703,506 (2) ,408,303 4,822, Social Action The part of the Social Action Plan that had the biggest repercussion in 2002 was the Social Action Aid Programme. That year 14,520 aid applications were turned in, and 13,450 were granted in full or in part. The leading type of aid requested was for children s education, where 4,479 aid grants were given; health, where 3,569 aid grants were given; childcare, 1,464; personnel advancement, 1,448; and personal education, 1,076. Some sort of aid was granted to 10,116 Tax Agency employees (around 36.7% of the entire staff). The total expenditure in aid acknowledged in 2002 was 4,824,970 euros, distributed as follows: SOCIAL ACTION EXPENDITURE AID TYPE 2002 Birth 149,400 Childcare 715,590 Child education 885,575 Disability 206,957 Personal education 284,763 Housing 620,931 Health 934,000 Advancement 570,360 Retirement 196,539 Exceptional 189,837 Resources 71,018 TOTAL 4,824,970 The insurance policies the Tax Agency holds on its personnel were extended, effective 1 April The Agency holds personal insurance policies (life and accident) and civil liability policies. The life policies ensure all employees; the accident policies ensure only certain collectives (Customs personnel, operations personnel in Customs Supervision and personnel on secondment away from their normal place 128

5 of work), and the professional civil liability policies insure all personnel. Ninety-two insurance claims were processed, 88 life insurance claims and 4 accident insurance claims. Insurance consumed 1,308, euros, which could be broken down into life (815, euros), accident (128, euros) and professional civil liability (364, euros). Internal Communications The Tax Agency has three major vehicles for general in-house communications: La ventana de la Agencia, the In-House Suggestion Box and the Human Resources Panel. La ventana de la Agencia ( The Agency Window ) was created in late It is a bimonthly internal publication intended to give readers more of an overall familiarity with the Tax Agency and the different areas that go to make it up, to divulge and share the organisation s challenges and projects, to favour the consolidation of a shared culture and set of values, to contribute to the comprehensive training of Tax Agency staff and to provide an open channel for personnel initiatives. The In-House Suggestion Box was created in May 2000 to give all Tax Agency personnel a place where they could submit their ideas, initiatives and suggestions to directly or indirectly help the Agency do a better job. The Human Resources Panel was created in 2001, a new addition to the Agency s corporate computer system and a tool Agency personnel can use for internal communications. With the Human Resources Panel, Agency staff members can access a wide variety of information, not just of a general sort, but also to suit their own personal interests (announcements of competitions for vacancies, leave time, training courses, Social Action Aid, pay, work schedules, bulletins announcing new features or entertainment, etc.) and, as of 2002, staff can also use it to get certain types of paperwork done on line. Acknowledgements of Services Rendered Acknowledgements of services rendered to the Tax Administration were first established by the Agency Chairman s Decision of 6 May In acknowledgements of merit went out to people who had made special contributions towards the achievement of the Tax Agency s goals, and 180 acknowledgements of years of service were given to people who had had a long career and significant ties to the Tax Administration (35 years in the Administration and at least 10 of those years in the Ministry of Finance). Legal and Disciplinary Procedures Human resources management at the Tax Agency also includes tracking various types of legal procedures involving Agency personnel, such as appeals and other claims filed against acts by civil servants, claims preliminary to action in labour court, court proceedings against acts of the government, social claims and enforcement of court rulings in all these matters. There are also disciplinary procedures to be carried out against the Tax Agency s civil servants and regular employees, plus the enforcement of any criminal penalties involving Agency personnel. The figures on all such procedures handled in 2002 are given in TABLE No

6 TABLE No 88 PROCEDURES HANDLED IN 2002 CLASS OF PROCEDURE NUMBER 1. Settled appeals and other claims against government personnel 1, Claims preliminary to action in labour court Lawsuits against acts of the government: 3.1. Proceedings (appeals) Summonses served Enforcement of sentences and writs Labour lawsuits: Enforcement of sentences and writs Concluded disciplinary procedures: 5.1. Civil servants Contract employees 16 Source: Human Resources and Economic Administration Department 130