Workforce Management Redeployment Package (WMRP)

The WMRP was introduced in 2006 after pressure from PCS on DWP management to look at ways of giving incentives to members to move on a voluntary basis as part of the Departmental strategy to avoid compulsory redundancies. As a result the Department entered negotiations with the Treasury with the aim of being able to offer such a package. The result is the WMRP, the latest version of which is available on the intranet.

What Is The WMRP?
The WMRP is available to staff agreeing to voluntarily move beyond normal mobility distance when they are surplus, facing a surplus situation or vacating a post to accommodate a surplus member of staff. It must also avoid the payment of an exit package. It is currently being offered to members in offices threatened with closure that cannot be found a post within mobility. Standard WMRP awards last for a fixed period of three years.

The Standard WMRP can consist of up to four elements in addition to the excess fares normally paid. These are:

• Excess Travelling Time to compensate for the difference in travelling time between home to previous office and home to new office journey. This element is only available to staff in Band A/AA to Band E/SEO or equivalent.


• Excess car parking fees – as part of the excess fares allowance where the cost is greater at the new office (the difference is paid).


• Additional Family Care expenses – where additional child or dependants care expenses are incurred by the redeployment.


• A monthly Redeployment Allowance – up to a maximum of £125 per month if the employee can show there remains a financial disincentive to their family unit and the cost is not covered by existing policies. There is no list of items this might cover but they must not be ‘novel or contentious’. Management have confirmed that the London Congestion Charge, Mersey Tunnel fees and similar tolls could be paid.

All payments are taxable and subject to NI contributions. Further details on the conditions that apply are in the attached guidance.

WMRP – Limited Relocation Award
It is also possible to obtain an WMRP to contribute to the cost of moving home up to the lower of the average exit cost of your grade or £10,000. It is not possible to combine this with excess fares allowance and further details are in the guidance.

Advice To Members
Whether a member accepts a transfer beyond normal mobility and accepts a WMRP will be very much a personal decision based on their individual circumstances. It may be the right decision for some members. However PCS advice should be to weigh up the options carefully and consider all the possible consequences. Factors to consider might be:

• The value of the exit package that is on offer or would be offered if transfer beyond mobility is refused, together with a realistic consideration of employment prospects outside the civil service in the current economic climate.


• The time limited nature of WMRP.


• The monthly Redeployment Allowance would not increase after it has been awarded – even if costs do.


• Increased travel to work can have an adverse effect on work/life balance.


• The possibility of posts closer to home becoming available.

In addition the departmental workforce planning guidance reflects the legal position that suitable jobs offered in the same or a similar location as a redundancy avoidance measure cannot be refused on the basis of mobility restrictions alone. This means that members accepting a WMRP to go to a post they find attractive might later find themselves compulsorily transferred to a post they don’t want in the same place and not be able to use the mobility rules to refuse.

Conclusion
PCS has always welcomed WMRP as an additional redundancy avoidance measure based on ideas first put forward by the union. But restrictions mean it won’t be available to some members that would want it, and as explained above it is not always the best option for members.