Strike scheduled to hit HMRC on Budget day

HMRC have insisted it will be business as usual at the department on Budget day, in spite of a planned UK-wide strike could see thousands of tax workers stay at home.

The industrial action has been organised by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) as the second in a fortnight. Last week, around 200,000 PCS subscribers took part in a two-day walkout in protest against changes to the Civil Service compensation scheme, that the union believes will lead to employees being ‘robbed of up to a third of their entitlements and lead to loyal civil and public servants losing tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of a job’.

An estimated 52,000 HMRC employees were among those striking on 8 and 9 March, leading to some of the department’s call centres, including the Liverpool site, being forced to ask members of the public to call back another day.

A similar number of Revenue employees are expected to take part next Wednesday (24 March) should the strike go ahead. The date has been chosen only as a symbolic gesture, and the walkout is not expected to cause any greater disruption to the taxman than previously, said the PCS, which is the UK’s fifth largest trade union with more than 300,000 members.

An HMRC spokesperson said the department was ‘disappointed with the decision to strike and will doing everything it can to maintain services to the public’.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said the Government would avoid the Budget day walkout were it to ‘enter into negotiations and reach an agreement that protects existing members’ entitlements’.

He added, ‘Loyal civil servants will not stand by and allow the jobs and services that they are proud to deliver to be cut on the cheap and are willing to take action to defend jobs and services.’

Categories: News , Budget 2010 , PCS