HMRC Staff Take Strike Action

Today, hundreds of HM Revenue and Customs staff are taking part in strike action in Leicester. The action is part of the Public and Commercial Services Union’s sustained campaign to defend jobs and services, vital for tax justice, from cutbacks and privatisation.

Photo by Steve Score.

They join up to 55’000 other PCS members in HMRC taking action across the country at over 100 picket lines. From tomorrow, PCS members will continue the campaign by observing a strict ban on overtime working. A number of high-profile figures from the trade union movement have sent their support.

Socialist Party members attended picket lines at the Attenborough House, City Gate House, and Saxon House HMRC offices in support and solidarity.

PCS Rep. Alex Morgan said,

While David Cameron is busy moralising about tax justice, his party in Government is in the process of privatising HMRC call centres and cutting HMRC jobs, the very people who collect tax revenue for the country.

For all the government talk about tax justice, without the workers there to collect the tax, large evaders like Tory party donor Gary Barlow and Tory party hatchet man Philip Green will continue to avoid millions in tax due to the public purse.

If the government wants to get serious about tax avoidance they should invest heavily in all areas of HMRC, preserving jobs in the civil service so that the necessary money can come into the public coffers to be spent on vital public services.

But at a time when massive cuts to public services are taking place under the pretext of deficit reduction, instead we see huge job cuts across the board in the public sector and growing privatisation.

The Attenborough House office is due be closed in the coming weeks, with staff transferred to Saxon House. Furthermore, with the Government’s plans to close City Gate and transfer staff to Saxon House by 2015, at least 300 jobs are expected to be cut as there won’t be the space in the soon-to-be overcrowded Saxon House office. The PCS are determined to prevent this.

Photo by Steve Score.

In a promising sign of private sector solidarity with public workers, a bin lorry even refused to cross the picket line to collect refuse from Saxon House. PCS members say they will also be offering support to the workers preparing for further strike action from this Thursday as part of their dispute over redundancy agreements at the local RF Brookes factory.

For further info from the PCS, follow this link.

Send messages of solidarity to R&Ccampaigns@pcs.org.uk with “Message of support to Leicester PCS in HMRC” as subject.