Defend call centres from privateers

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PCS Comment

3 January 2012

PCS members in Revenue and Customs are to stage a series of short walkouts to protest against privatisation.

There was a three-hour strike on 12 December as part of the same dispute.

Management has now awarded separate contracts to two private sector companies - Teleperformance and Sitel - to run call handling trials at call centres in Bathgate, West Lothian, and Lillyhall, Cumbria.

On Monday 16 January PCS members in contact centres, customer operations and enquiry centres are taking the following industrial action:

Walk out of work at 10am for 30 minutes, returning to work at 10.30am
Walk out of work at 4.30pm for 30 minutes, and either return to work at 5pm if you are due to work beyond 5pm or finish work for the day
Members on shifts that finish after 7pm are asked to leave work 30 minutes before the end of their shift. Members due to finish work at, say, 8pm would therefore leave at 7.30pm.

There will be further action on 31 January – with details to be announced later.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "Our members have very serious concerns about this creeping privatisation into HM Revenue and Customs and, as well as the threat to their jobs, they do not think such sensitive data should be handed over to private firms.”

Please send messages of support to R&Ccampaigns@pcs.org.uk or @pcsrcgroup on Twitter. They will be distributed to branches and put on the web.

Latest on the dispute from the PCS Revenue and Customs pages

Tax workers strike over privatisation and conditions – media release

There is an alternative – economic arguments against the cuts

Take part in the action – join PCS

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