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One of the country’s largest trade unions is attempting to put a halt to a proposed HMRC office closure.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has launched an online petition in the hope it will persuade the Government to reconsider its plans to shut down the Revenue’s Peterhead site as part of moves to centralise the department’s business.
There are no other public sector jobs within the area, warned the PCS, and the office has seen steady job losses over the past ten years.
The union – which represents around 325,000 members in government departments, agencies, public bodies, and private companies – added that the majority of remaining staff members are likely to face redundancy because they are outside of reasonable daily travel of another HMRC office.
Such job losses 'will have a serious effect' on the economy of Peterhead, one of Europe's largest fishing ports, claimed the PCS.
The union's petition can be found on the 10 Downing Street website.
It reads: ‘We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to keep a fully staff HMRC office open in Peterhead beyond 2011’ (sic).
It follows the announcement last month that 50 local Revenue offices are to close following a review of facilities housing around 7,500 employees outside the department’s urban centres in the Midlands, north-east, south-east regions.
Last year, the PCS, the UK’s fifth-largest trade union, publicly backed Taxation’s Stop the Staff Cuts campaign, which sought to put a halt to a planned round of redundancies throughout HMRC.
