On Monday, according to the Public & Commercial Services Union (PCS), the civil service union, over 41,000 of its 55,000 HMRC members went on strike against job cuts. Some tax offices experienced 97% of their staff striking and there were picket lines at more than 100 offices.
The strike caused some tax offices to close whilst others were forced to operate a significantly reduced service. Those people who made calls to HMRC phone calls were greeted with a recorded message advising them to call back on Wednesday or even later in the week.
In response to the government's plan to cut 10,000 HMRC jobs as part of the ongoing reductions in public spending, the PCS held a ballot, the result of which was industrial action. If the planned job losses go ahead they would increase the reduction in HMRC posts to 40,000 since the department was formed in 2005.
The union defended its actions claiming that rather than reducing HMRC numbers the government should be investing in the department so as to tackle the billions lost each year through tax evasion and avoidance. This is despite the fact that £917 million has been made available to combat tax avoidance, evasion and fraud.
Strikers were also protesting against two private contractors being used to handle tax credit enquiries and will prolong their action with an overtime ban so as to highlight the extent to which overtime is implemented to minimise the effect of staff reductions.
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