Public and Commercial Services Union

The national statutory pay ballot begins on Wednesday, 24 September, and will run until 17 October. This ballot follows the overwhelming rejection of the HMRC pay offer by our members and the endorsement of further action over and above national action (see MB/016/08). Revenue and Customs Group members now have a vital role to play in delivering a positive national ballot result. It is essential that your voice is added to colleagues across the union by voting positively in the national ballot.

Coordinated action

The national ballot ends on 17 October. National action is expected to begin in the first weeks of November with a national strike - followed by waves of sector-based action for three months until January. In addition, it is expected that a civil service-wide ban on overtime will be declared, whilst, on the strength of our HMRC ballot result, we will be seeking approval from the national union to take additional department specific action.

The demands of the national pay campaign bring together the claims that negotiators and campaigners in all parts of PCS are taking to their respective departments. We are calling for fundamental revisions to the Treasury’s pay remit guidance for 2008, the guidance that determines pay outcomes for most members in the civil service and linked bodies. Our demands are therefore based on the following:

• basic pay awards that at least match inflation (RPI)
• separate funding for pay progression costs from funding for cost of living increases so that we can at least operate on a level basis with the rest of the public sector
• reduction in the number of separate pay negotiations
• an end to pressure for regional pay
• additional funding to remedy equal pay problems
• no more link between pay and performance appraisal systems

At the meeting of the Trades Union Congress earlier this month delegates unanimously supported the PCS and UNISON resolution calling for coordinated industrial action across the public sector, to include major national demonstrations and days of action. By adding our voice to that of our colleagues in all parts of the public sector we join with over six million workers directly subject to government pay controls.

Anger to action

For many PCS members in HMRC the offer of a 2.4% pay rise for the next three years (2%, 1% and 1% respectively if you’re at the maxima of your pay scale) is simply the last straw. The constant uncertainty cast by looming office closures and the continuation of widescale job cuts is part of a general picture of unfairness and inequity which has been driven by government policy and taken forward by HMRC. PCS negotiators, at all levels, are challenging the department directly on the abuses of LEAN working, the threats to flexible working in contact centres and on the continuing threats posed by privatisation. It is crucial that we maintain the support and momentum that has gathered over the HMRC pay ballot. We are now therefore asking members to vote positively in the national ballot so that we can take industrial action alongside our colleagues across all parts of the union - our fight for fair pay in HMRC is part of a much wider battle to gain fair pay for civil and public sector workers generally.

Members’ meetings

Union meetings will be taking pace in your local area. Please do all that you can to attend these meetings, listen to the arguments, and support the call for consolidated national action. PCS negotiators are taking our members’ arguments directly and persistently to Ministers and MPs and we also continue to encourage and support local and branch campaigns to stop office closures and save jobs. It is crucial that we take the fight on pay directly to the government and in close cooperation with all members of PCS and members in other public sector unions.

Our demands that management take a moment to reflect on the madness of job cuts and the office closure programme are receiving widespread support in the labour movement. In the autumn we will launch a major national campaign for tax justice. In conjunction with the national union, the TUC, other unions and a wide range of campaigning bodies we will be highlighting the unprecedented scale of the ‘tax gap’ and the link to job cuts – at least £25billion each year goes uncollected in taxes while the government ploughs ahead with axing the very staff who collect the taxes. We will therefore be making a high profile case for a fair tax system supported by a properly resourced department that has enough staff to deliver a decent public service. National PCS officers will be talking directly to your branch officers where support for further action amongst PCS members on specific issues that lie outside the current dispute on pay has been identified. Through a combination of hard bargaining, active campaigning and solid action we can win a fair deal for all our members.

• PCS members have resoundingly rejected the HMRC pay offer – please now vote for action alongside your PCS colleagues in the national ballot
• national, statutory pay ballot runs from 24 September to 17 October
• union meetings will be taking place in your area – please do your utmost to attend
• campaigns to save offices and jobs must be stepped up – get involved
• think before you volunteer to work overtime – your overtime is somebody else’s job and could mean the end of yours