Hyper inflation hits HR

This post is about Chas Dowden. Photographs of him on the web are just of another man in a suit and not worth putting at the top of this particular post so here is another much more interesting picture containing a completely different man called Dowden. You can't say that the Mr Mustard blog doesn't broaden your horizons.

More interesting than HR

Are you back? Good. Well concentrate on the matter in hand now.

Back in November Mr Mustard put an FOI request in about Chas Dowden and received an unexpected answer about a lady he hadn't heard of. Enquiries continue.

In December he put another set of little questions in about Chas himself. Chas turned out to be employed via Chas Dowden Solutions Ltd and Huxley Associates Ltd ( later through SThree Staffing UK Ltd trading as Huxley Associates although in error they called themselves SThree UK Ltd ). He was retained for 6 months, then 6 months more and then 6 months more and he is still here.

Chas Dowden contracts

Mr Mustard hopes that you are grateful Mrs Murphy-Brookman that Mr Mustard himself has redacted your signatures, not because they would have got into the public domain, but because the 3 signatures are so different it looks like other people have been signing for you? Only one of these 3 contracts actually got signed before it was due to come into force.

It is however your name on the contracts and so you are responsible for what happens in your department. What did happen? Dear Charles's remuneration (he surely can't have been christened "Chas", a bit pretentious what? - a bit of research reveals that he is indeed Charles William) went from £350 a day in June 2010 to £475 a day in December 2010. That is an increase of 35% in 6 months. Do send an email to sarah.murphy-brookman@barnet.gov.uk if you fancy the same increase but it's probably best to change your name and create a disposable email first and ask for an increase for a different department if you want to keep your job. If Chas is negotiating with you over something do point out to him that he had a 35% increase in 2010 and that we are "all in this together" and that you would like to be in it as much as he is: one feels sure that he will agree.

Did a 35% increase fit in the ethos of "better services for less money"?

Did all pay rates in the North London Business Park go up by 35% in 2010? No, they didn't, did they. The staff got absolutely zero% increase in 2010 and in 2011.

Is Chas an employee paying PAYE? No, as far as one can tell, he isn't. The position is somewhat murky and it became even murkier in December 2011. The pay of most consultants got hidden in Hays from April 2011. Chas's didn't although when he came to be renewed in December 2011 he has also been routed through Hays. Is there a good reason? None that Mr Mustard can think of that would help the openness and transparency agenda.

How does dear Chas get his wedge? Well the route is unclear but it contains some of the following steps

Barnet Council

Hays HR

Huxley Associates?

Chas Dowden Solutions Ltd

Chas's back pocket

You might like to see the Accounts of Chas Dowden Solutions Ltd and here they are.

Chas Dowden Solutions Limited

So it appears that Chas eventually gets his income through Chas Dowden Solutions Ltd after it has passed through more than one set of books and so is, as Eric Pickles MP would say, a "Town Hall Tax Dodger", but the position is not clear and if he is committed to paying PAYE why not just pay it at Barnet Council? One suspects that he doesn't pay PAYE as he lives in Rochester, no the one in Kent silly, and so by pretending not to be an employee, he can set some of his travel expenses against tax.

This does not seem to be Chas's only source of income from Barnet Council though, which is the subject of another post on another day.

One final point. What the f does a HR Consultant do for 20 months and counting?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard