HMRC union calls for strike
Data losses exacerbated by job losses
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The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union will on Monday begin balloting members on possible strike action to protest at continuing redundancies at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
The PCS's HMRC group executive committee is asking all members within HMRC to vote yes to the proposed action.
The PCS union has previously blamed job losses, budget cuts, and reorganisation for the loss of the child benefit database in November. More than 200 jobs relating to data security are due to be lost by March this year, the union claims.
The PCS is calling on members "to take part in one day's strike action on Thursday 31 January 2008 and action short of strike action, from the following day, should this be necessary depending on the outcome of further negotiations". The further day of action is likely to be a department-wide overtime ban.
Ballot papers should arrive with members on Monday 7 January 2008 and the poll closes at 10am on Wednesday 23 January.
The PCS was previously negotiating with the government on the basis of an assurance there would be no compulsory redundancies. That agreement expired in September and the union wants it renewed.
The union also wants an assurance that no other parts of HMRC will be outsourced or privatised, that plans to privatise the work of security guards will be reversed, and is calling for an end to all overtime unless agreed by the union under exceptional circumstances.
It also wants agreement on what local action managers can take to reduce the impact of job cuts and increasing work pressure on its members.
HMRC is aiming to cut 25,000 jobs and five per cent of its budget by 2011.
More from the PCS here. ®
COMMENTS
@ Doh!
Surely you used the wrong icon, I mean how could anyone writing with such appalling spelling and grammar have managed to get a job, any job, anywhere paying upwards of 60K? Please let me know and I'll apply as well :-)
Doh!
Since when have the HRMC had public support?
Those that pay into the system resent them for overcharging and being inept.
Those that take "tax credits" (althou how you get a credit for something you dont ay?) complaain the government doesnt give them enough!?
as for the person who is still on £19,000 after 19 years you must be a real highflyer, in my reckoning that doesnt make you much more than an "AO Grade", in which case in you work in outer hebredies so be it - what else would you be doing? i
if you work in the south east of england youu shoudl hve got a life and real job elsewhere.
i noticed when working for the hMRC in the past, when the Union Staff went on strike the efficiency of the palce went up as most of the people in the PCS where in it to protect there rear ends from a well deserved kicking.... the amount of whinging realted to "Oh, if you ask me to do that - I am agoing straight to the union" - its not about public service, its about ineptitude and pocket lining
thats why i left, got a proper job in industry at 3x times the money........ everyone i used to work with are still there moaning about how small their garrenteed payrises are and how overwork (ha!) and underpaid (ha-Ha!) they are! on a pound per effort (or lack of) basis they are some of ther best paid workers i have ever known!
@Annonymous Coward that will vote yes
You have my backing.
I know for a fact that very few government jobs pay what they should, whilst some of the boys at the top get huge wages, travel expenses, living expenses and bonuses etc; they live like kings.
It appears our Labour government wishes to cause as much destruction to our country as possible - by wasting hundreds of billions of pounds of our taxes (which you work so hard to collect from us) and then fail to spend it on the correct bits of the NHS, schools, other public services.
They spend it on bad contracts that don't deliver on time, subsidising poorly managed companies that give their fat cats huge bonuses etc.
Then they leapfrog scandal after scandal every month, release loads of hardened criminals and refuse to track them, refuse to imprison perverts, and refuse to secure data (IT angle). They also sack those responsible for data security just to put the final nail in the coffin (another IT angle).
Gordon Brown and his cronies should be locked up and tried for treason.
There again, do I really want the Conservatives back in? Devil and the deep blue sea.
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