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HMRC union votes for 30 June strike

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16th Jun 2011
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Accountants should support HMRC staff when they strike later this month, a spokesman for the Public and Commercial Services union told AccountingWEB.co.uk.

Members of the PCS union, which has about 60,000 members in HMRC, voted on Wednesday in favour of a walkout in protest over pension changes, job cuts and a pay freeze. Just over 60% voted for a strike (on a 32% turnout) and 83.6% voted for other forms of industrial action.

The strike will take place on 30 June in co-ordination with teachers’ and other unions and could disrupt HMRC’s public services by adding to delays in answering phone queries and the postal backlog that has built up in recent years.

The PCS said further strikes in the autumn are possible if there is no agreement with the government. A strike in October could cause major disruption to taxpayers who submit paper versions of their tax returns by the October 31 self-assessment deadline.

The mood among accountants who discussed the national strike on AccountingWEB this week was ambivalent. Yet an earlier debate under the heading Will anyone notice? generated support from some unlikely sources. Old Greying Accountant, for example, commented: “Surely HMRC staff has as much right to voice complaints about HMRC as we are as agents and taxpayers?”

A PCS spokesman echoed this view. HMRC’s service standards were “appalling”, due mainly to 30,000 jobs being cut from the department in the past five years.

He said that accountants should support the one-day strike action by HMRC staff even though it could cause them hassle in the short term: “It would be one day of inconvenience measured against many years of declining public services and standards.”

He denied that PCS members have “gold-plated” pensions. The average pension of a PCS member is worth £4,200 a year, he said.

An HMRC spokeswoman said it would make contingency arrangements to ensure that all its call centres stay open to minimise disruption to the public.

HMRC employees have already gone on strike this year – including a walkout earlier this month over sick pay.

The union’s plea for support from accountants may prove a hard sell. In addition to the criticisms from AccountingWEB members, Francesca Lagerberg, head of the national tax office at Grant Thornton warned that industrial action by HMRC staff in the autumn could cause panic for taxpayers filing paper returns if they can’t get through to self-assessment helplines.

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Replies (12)

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By User deleted
16th Jun 2011 13:03

Link .....

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka - In the 2000 election campaign, Serwotka pledged that he would only accept an average member's wage. However, in 2009 he received £86,244 in salary as well as £25,441 in pensions contributions and a £1,076 additional housing cost allowance

see - https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/anyanswers/mass-public-sector-strikes/506444

 

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the sea otter
By memyself-eye
16th Jun 2011 13:54

So, less than on third voted

and just over half of them in favour - one in six overall then. Hardly an endorsement for strike action is it?

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By Ian Lewis
16th Jun 2011 13:59

PCS Strike Action

 Many in the profession have had pay freeze for a number of years and certainly don't benefit from the civil service pension scheme. Why should we support action that is seeking to protect better pensions than we will receive, and that we are paying for?

I don't recall any civil service union offering support for the hardships we are having to endure in the real world.

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By User deleted
16th Jun 2011 14:32

Matron!

Fetch me a needle, for I fear that my sides have split.

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By DBlood
18th Jun 2011 10:03

Accountants should support HMRC staff when they strike later thi

Whoever writes these lines for the PCS should be writing comedy scripts for the BBC because that is the best joke I've heard in years.

I wonder if they could tell us exactly when HMRC staff ever "supported" accountants?  I must have been away that day because I missed it.

They are greedy money grabbing civil sevants who seem to think that they should be treated as some kind of "special case" and made immune from the realities facing everyone else.

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By yorky1000
20th Jun 2011 10:24

Index-Linked

Am I correct in my thought that their pensions are index-linked? If so, that's already far better than many of us can achieve.

I also happen to think that Equitable pensioners should get their compensation before any of this lot. But then the problem arises of what I am going to spend the £250 on !!!

Bitter, moi ???

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By Mike Carter
20th Jun 2011 11:32

Minimum Wage Retirement

I've just had my Private Pension summary through. It's projected value in real terms is pitiful, below what it would be possible to live on. 10 years ago it's projected value was low not pitiful.

When I know that this pitiful amount will be taxed to support civil service pensions; well......

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By The Black Knight
20th Jun 2011 11:50

taking the Michael

They should recieve the same sympathy as struggling businessmen would recieve from them, after all the civil service mismanaged the economy they decided to take charge of.

Sick days - get real - even when I am sick I cannot have a day off, and HMRC would not view this as an excuse for a late return.

Unfortunately the honest hard workers are fed up with paying for these ineffectual state employees, professional tax credit and benefit claimants and tax evaders. All of whom seem to be on a pretty good screw.

I doubt if a few days will make any noticable difference to the delays in responding to correspondence.

Have the days off guys, on us ..........because you can......hope the weather is good for you!

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By naomi2000
21st Jun 2011 17:40

A pragmatic view

I can't imagine that HMRC response speed is going to be particularly high on 30 June, so whether your sympathy lies with the strikers or the non strikers, it probably makes sense to bring forward any routine calls or diarised reminders to the 29th and keep your HMRC contact to a minimum on the 30th -unless of course you like listening to hold music.

I don't think it's stupid to suggest that we should think about our stance. Most of us will have clients and staff who have family members in the public sector .

 

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By rosataylor
22nd Jun 2011 12:41

HMRC voting ratio
I don't get the voting ratio correctly or I am missing something?

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By peterclare
30th Jun 2011 15:31

Strikes

No way; why support strikers. If they do not like it they can resign!!

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By The Black Knight
30th Jun 2011 17:13

Today

today has been nice and quiet ! lol

No stupid and snotty phone calls advising me HMRC cannot find stuff submitted electronically when I have confirmation of filing.

Still have to pay for them, but it makes little or no difference.

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