HMRC hit by strikes

News Article - 31 July 2006
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A number of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) tax processing offices have been the subject of mass walk-outs by workers.

More than 8,000 people went on 24-hour strike from ten HMRC tax offices around the UK.

Workers from the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) are taking the action in relation to job security and working practices concerns.

The union has accused HMRC of going back on an earlier deal, which averted strike action planned for July 14th.

The PCS claims that new training practices include unnecessary individual monitoring and represent a dumbing down of working standards.

Staff walked out of tax processing centres in Glasgow, Newcastle, Salford, Liverpool, Wrexham, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Leicester, Bradford and Edinburgh.

"The disruption caused by today's strike could have been avoided if senior management had stuck to the spirit of the interim agreement on which we postponed the previous planned one day strike," said general secretary of the PCS, Mark Serwotka.

"In an age where the government is placing a huge emphasis on creating a skilled workforce across the economy, committed and skilled staff are increasingly angry over the introduction of the new style working practices which break up individual tasks leading to the deskilling and demotivation of the workforce."

According to a spokesman, the government is "very disappointed" with the strike action, describing it as "unnecessary and unwarranted".

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