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Raising the standard

8 June 2009

Members working in HMRC contact centres have won major concessions on draconian work practices and flexible working rights from the employer following the threat of industrial action. Scottish YM convenor Debbie Mallet outlines the background to this and what was gained.

HMRC group executive committee took the decision to ballot members because we had minimal movement from management in negotiations.

Attacks on our terms and conditions meant HMRC contact centre members voted strongly to say enough is enough and signalled a message of determination to fight back.

The mood was so strong 74% voted yes to strike action and 82% in favour of action short of strike. To date, this is one of the highest percentage yes votes in a ballot in PCS history.

Eroding terms and conditions
 

Working in HMRC is a struggle. We are constantly bombarded with stats telling us call-handling time is way too high or we’ve had too much idle time. We’re not allowed to give any further assistance to customers once a query has been dealt with because it prolongs calls.
 

In the past we used to get trained for six months by personal mentors and site-based Learning specialists. We used to have the right to apply for jobs elsewhere in HMRC and had protection from negative uses of real time monitoring.

Our leave entitlement has eroded too – at least an hour a day could be used flexibly and we had guaranteed annual leave entitlement in summer months. Now, we are lucky if we don’t get followed to the bathroom and asked why we’ve taken so long on an unscheduled break!
 

Responding to pressure

Senior management tells us that in the ‘real world’ it’s ten times worse. But the government, who years ago everyone wanted to work for, employs us. We expect to be treated with respect and decency.
 

Propaganda meetings were arranged up and down the country by senior management in a ploy to turn the vote in their favour. The impression from staff was that management were talking down to them.

I believe this turned anyone who was unsure or sitting on the fence about the ballot, to vote in favour of industrial action.
 

Following on from this, PCS reps across the country worked hard work to encourage members to use their vote effectively and because our union had a visible presence and reflected the concerns of staff in contact centres, over 250 new members were recruited to PCS.
 

Key achievements

It looks like we’re getting somewhere without having to take industrial action. It’s welcoming that management has responded more positively and seem to be conceding on a number of key issues.

Praise has to go to our negotiating team but if it wasn’t for the strong commitment and support from PCS members in contact centres none of this would be have been achieved.

Call Centre members can also play a vital role in monitoring what has been agreed centrally. Guidance on the outcome of negotiations will be issued to local PCS representatives and members should report any infraction of these to their rep.

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