Around 20,000 HMRC call centre staff and enquiry officers held a half-hour walkout this morning over alleged moves towards privatisation – a charge strongly denied by HM Revenue & Customs.
Tax officers did the same this afternoon at 4.30pm and those on late shifts plan to leave half an hour prior to their usual 7pm finish. More worryingly, staff are also planning further action on 31 January – the deadline for online Self Assessment returns.
The Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents the striking workers, said that the walkouts were expected to be “hugely disruptive to services”. A spokesperson said that the strikes are against the government’s hiring of two private firms in trials to run call handling that will “pave the way towards privatisation”.
But an HMRC spokesperson denied the allegation. “HMRC is not privatising existing HMRC contact centre jobs, but we are determined to improve the service we provide to our customers and this means considering a variety of options including drawing on the knowledge and experience of external contact centre operators.”
The year-long trials are being held with two companies – Sitel and Teleperformance – at Lillyhall in Cumbria and Bathgate in West Lothian from February.
The PCS spokesperson continued. “It doesn’t really stack up that there are no plans to privatise any services by the fact that they are doing the trial for a year using them. Why use them if there’s nothing to come as a result of it?”
The union also said that staff morale was at “rock bottom” when you compared staff surveys over the last couple of years, and levels of engagement were well below average compared to the rest of the civil service. Faith in senior managers, decision-makers and strategic direction, is “absolutely on the floor”, according to the PCS.
The spokesperson said: “Jobs are being cut and what we’re saying is that instead of losing expertise in the department, what they should be doing is investing in their own staff and training them to do the roles they’ve got.”
HMRC retorted: “We are doing everything possible to maintain contact centre services to the public and we will continue talking to the unions to address their concerns.”
