Industrial action planned for Cumbernauld tax office

The PCS trade union has agreed to take action short of strike in its long running campaign against job cuts, office closures, and employee evaluation practices it believes to be unfair.

Local branch secretary John Miller said: “Cumbernauld staff face the prospect of job cuts and privatisation of their jobs.

“Added to this the issue of an unfair and discriminatory policy which blames the staff for failings of a service that is being run down by government edict.

“PCS and its members face threats to remove the time served process of check off subscriptions deductions from salaries by the government costing the taxpayer more than it is to implement.

“Such actions only reinforce that there is a deliberate campaign to undermine the tax collection system.”

Around one million public sector workers across the UK are currently being balloted on a possible strike day on Thursday, July 19, to protest against a one per cent cap on pay increases.

Mr Miller added: “PCS does not accept that these UK cuts are inevitable or indeed required.“

An HMRC spokesperson said: “We are determined to improve our service delivery under the wider Civil Service Reform package. Assessing the performance of staff through a fair and reasonable performance appraisal system is a key part of these reforms.

“We remain committed to resolving disputes through dialogue and we will do everything possible to ensure services are not affected by industrial action.”