Reinstate our sacked HMRC reps now

PCS People 2024 issue 3 includes an update on our campaign to reinstate the Benton Park View reps sacked for their trade union activities.

A campaign to win the reinstatement of three branch reps unfairly sacked by HMRC has gathered widespread support as PCS calls for an end to union victimisation in the department.

Gordon Askew, Rachel Farmer and Joel Hamilton, who are based at Benton Park View (BPV), in Newcastle, were all fired following allegations by HMRC of gross misconduct. Other PCS reps are also under disciplinary investigation.

The union has pledged its backing for the campaign and support is continuing to grow. A meeting with 15 MPs in parliament saw them put their weight behind our demands, including Mary Glindon, a PCS ARMs member who used to work for HMRC at BPV.

Gordon and Rachel were targeted after their involvement in delivering strike action as part of our national campaign last year, which won an improved pay offer and other concessions.

They were charged with computer misuse, with management arguing they had used the department’s Teams system for something other than HMRC business. Both have decades of unblemished service.

Joel, who works in the HMRC-based Surge and Rapid Response Team and had been deployed to the Cabinet Office, was also dismissed for computer-related reasons.

Financial support is currently being provided to the reps, alongside personal case and legal representation. Claims of unfair dismissal and ‘trade union detriment’ have been lodged with the Employment Tribunal, but PCS believes the department should reinstate our reps without the need for legal action. 

There have been previous cases of victimisation at BPV. In 2017 a rep was sacked when HMRC said that emailing PCS material from his work email to his personal account was computer misuse. We won the case and the rep was reinstated.

Branch vice chair Angie Foggett said volunteering to be a union rep is a vocation that often means working late and at weekends to support members: “Rachel, Gordon and Joel have over 53 years of collective unblemished service in HMRC and are exceptional PCS reps. This attack against our branch by a few rogue senior managers is disgraceful union-busting.

“Our branch is overwhelmed and grateful for the outpouring of support from reps, other unions, the wider PCS family and MPs, but most of all from the members.”

Key developments so far

  • A protest outside HMRC BPV in July saw hundreds of campaign leaflets handed out and petition signatures gathered. The reps were joined by DWP Tyneside and Northumbria activists and members of the Newcastle Unite Union Community branch. Regular leafleting sessions have been held, supported by MPs.
  • Fran Heathcote used her first letter to Keir Starmer to call for their reinstatement and “cease any further victimisation”
  • More than 130 people went to a special members’ meeting in August, heard from the reps and watched video testimonies (watch: tinyurl.com/2np26pjw).
  • Our reps met 14 MPs and a lord in parliament to raise their case.
  • Kate Osborne MP, a former union rep, asked a question in the House of Commons during Treasury questions. She said the way the reps have been treated is “appalling”. The minister agreed to look into it and respond.
  • Huge numbers of solidarity messages have come in from the trade union movement. At TUC Congress, over 100 signatures were collected on our petition. Mary Glindon MP told the August meeting that the reps’ testimonies “place an imperative on us all to seek justice for their unfair and unjust treatment, and to continue the campaign until they are back doing the jobs they have carried out with such dedication over years”.

Fran Heathcote said that PCS in the North East, where she also lives, is “like a family”. “I know activists in our region, and across the union, will do everything they can to fight for the reinstatement of our reps who have been treated so unfairly. We have stood with you and will continue to do so.”

HMRC group organiser Jon-Paul Rosser urged all members to “return the favour” by standing up for our reps, who have spent years standing up for BPV staff and had organised strike action in 2023 on behalf of everyone. He said the dismissals were “vindictive and cruel” and urged the “honest, respectful and decent” managers to challenge the poor behaviour of a minority.

New HMRC group president Hector Wesley said he had told senior officials in the department that securing reinstatement for our reps was the top priority.

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