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HMRC union to strike half-day on Monday

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5th Apr 2013
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HMRC staff who are members of main civil service union PCS will strike for half a day on Monday 8 April as part of ongoing industrial action.

The three hour, 42-minute strike is planned to campaign against HMRC's new performance management arrangements.

The industrial action may disrupt the start of the new tax year and implementation of RTI, which comes into play from 6am tomorrow morning.

“We believe it will cause problems for the introduction of RTI and HMRC itself acknowledges this,” a PCS spokesperson said.

“Our intention is to have as many people as possible on strike together on Monday morning,” read a statement on the PCS website.

While the group claim the strike will impact RTI, the Revenue are vehement that it will not. 

A spokesperson said: "The industrial action will have no effect on the introduction of RTI, which is already piloting well and will launch as planned on 6 April."

HMRC has been notified of the strike and said that they will do all they can to run business as usual on Monday, but did confirm that there may be an impact on phone services during the morning.

“Phone lines will be open, but people with non-urgent calls may want to call in the afternoon or following day, as to have the best chance of getting through the first time,” an HMRC spokesperson said.

“HMRC will do everything possible to maintain essential services to the public.”

The industrial action will take place for most HMRC PCS members between 9.18am and 1pm on Monday morning.

Disruptive striking began on Budget day, 20 March, when members kicked off the three-month long campaign against job cuts and to express their opposition to HMRC’s new performance management arrangements.

PCS’ demands include a pay increase of £1,200 or 5% for 2013, an end to the pay freeze, scrap plans to rip up our terms and conditions and an end to the “raid” on public sector pensions.

73% of 74,983 HMRC staff are union members.

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Replies (12)

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By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
06th Apr 2013 14:45

 "3 hours 42 minutes" I like

 "3 hours 42 minutes" I like how precise that is, only in the civil service would you strike to the minute!

 

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By jimmercy
08th Apr 2013 10:44

9.18

So in at 9.00, coat off, coffea, chat about Foyles War (insert TV programme of your choice), switch on PC powered by Windows 95 and then, Oh, coat back on, join picket line.

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By Trevor Scott
08th Apr 2013 12:02

Windows 95?

Are you serious?

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Replying to marks:
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By jimmercy
08th Apr 2013 12:14

Sorry, your right I meant

to say Windows 3.1

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By Happy Up North Accountant
08th Apr 2013 12:15

Of course he's not serious

I read many comments elsewhere about the level (or lack thereof) of HMRC service when calling them. How long you have to wait on the phone for, how under qualified or sometimes rude the adviser on the end of the phone is, how sometimes you call and simply hear the message "I'm sorry, all of our advisers are busy, please call back another time".

I can attest to these scenarios and how annoying they can be.I rightly join in with the criticism of these sorts of experiences.

And now, here are HMRC staff protesting against the very thing that will make these everyday occurrences even worst (reduced staff numbers, generic management targets etc) and they face criticism again in the form of a straw man creation of their supposedly typical lazy day.

Bash HMRC!! Bash HMRC!! Ignore any hypocrisy in our various arguments, just keeping bashing them!!!!

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By ralan
08th Apr 2013 12:25

down time/pens, have a coffee

So we have had the computers off line from Thursday to Saturday when it could have been over Easter and now they go on strike for HALF a day.

These people do not live in the real world.

Went into my payroll software to file some P35's this morning and got a box up saying we would not get a response for a WEEK and not to file P35's until after Wednesday 10 April so are they going to strike again.

Just filed my first RTI for a payroll paid on Saturday and went through OK and got a response back.

If they are not satisfied with their Job then suggest they give their notice and find something they are happy doing and let the ones who want to work get on with it. They just do not want other people to be able to work, these are probably the ones who take so long to answer the phone and correspondence that is why they are against the  HMRC's new performance management arrangements , shirkers the lot of them!!!!

This is another reason we can probably use in appeals, talk about stacking the odds against themselves they will get no sympathy from the majority of Tax Payers and Agents if they pull stunts like this.

This has been done in my lunch break

 

 

 

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Chris M
By mr. mischief
08th Apr 2013 13:43

My plan B for Osborne

Plan B for the Government: anyone who goes on General Strike, plus guys like Abu Qatada, get sent to one of the 700-odd uninhabited islands on the Falklands. This creates jobs. We also invite the Argentinians to conduct military exercises on those islands, thus helping smooth relationships. Two birds killed with 1 stone!

Personally there have been four times in my career when things were so bad I felt I could not really carry on with my job.  Twice I decided that alternatives were worse and carried on, in fact it was just a bad patch and I was glad I did.  The other times I did what these professional moaners and whingers should be doing now:

RESIGN!

In the name of God, go!  Make way for folk who want the work.  Not once have I ever, even for one second, considered striking.  For me being on strike and being a professional are mutually exclusive, simple as that.

 

 

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By Happy Up North Accountant
08th Apr 2013 13:58

Too polarised

I don't advocate continual striking at whimsical events but to assert that to strike is somehow immoral, or at least unprofessional, is a bit too much of a polarised view for me. Striking has brought about many positive changes. Of course, every strike is open to criticism individually but striking as means to an end has produced many positive changes in our history.

Again though, you can't moan about HMRC being rubbish at replying to letters and answering calls (which they are!) and then moan that they dare to strike to stop this getting even worst. Well, you can, but I fail to see how it's not hypocritical.

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By Rammstein
09th Apr 2013 08:23

Real world

'Again though, you can't moan about HMRC being rubbish at replying to letters and answering calls (which they are!) and then moan that they dare to strike to stop this getting even worst. Well, you can, but I fail to see how it's not hypocritical.' 

Im sorry Happy up north but I don't think you understand how HMRC works.  I know people who have worked there for over twenty years and have never done a proper days work in their lives.  They would not last a day in my job, your job or any job in the real world.  These are the people striking as they do not want to change.  It would benefit everyone to make these people leave as the rest of the HMRC staff could then do they jobs right.

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By justsotax
09th Apr 2013 10:02

There was a time when
Working conditions were so bad and opportunities so limited that striking was the only option to improve standards. That time has long since passed - union leaders have no other reason to exist but to justify their own jobs by leading their members the merry dance in believing that there terms and conditions will be so bad if changed that they will result in poverty. Of course in this free society they do have a choice as pointed out above - resign and find yourself that gold plated job in banking which your union rep has persuaded you exists for every employee in the 'private sector'.

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By Trevor Scott
10th Apr 2013 11:41

I asked about the operating system used by HMRC...

....because it raised the immediate question of how they ensure their systems are protected. I cannot conceive, in this day and age, how old operating systems such as 3.1, Win95, Win 2000 etc could ever be classified as secure....never mind how they could link with modern systems.

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Replying to andy.partridge:
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By jimmercy
10th Apr 2013 12:20

Doh! It was a rather pathetic joke

But perhaps you have no sense of humour??

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