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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Daniel Keane

HMRC workers to strike for 18 days over May and June

More than 400 workers from His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will go on strike for 18 days in May and June, the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) has said.

A total of 432 customer service advisers in Glasgow and Newcastle upon Tyne will walk out on several dates across May and June, the union said.

The PCS said the strike is over pay, pensions, job security and redundancy terms.

It will affect services including the HMRC Employer Helpline, Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) Helpline, HMRC's Student Loans Unit, PAYE registrations, maternity, paternity and sick pay.

The strikes will take place on May 10-12, 15-19, 22-26, 29-31 and June 1-2.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Our hard-working members in HMRC are fed up with being treated with disdain by a government that doesn't seem to care about its own staff.

“If they did, ministers would be able to stop this strike action tomorrow by making a fair offer to help our members through the cost-of-living crisis and beyond.”

In other developments, midwives in England voted to accept the Government’s pay offer to NHS staff.

In a statement, the RCM said that 57 per cent of members had voted to accept the deal on a 48 per cent turnout.

Unison, the largest NHS union, have also accepted the deal - though it has been narrowly rejected by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

Alice Sorby, Director of Employment Relations at the RCN, said the offer was “not perfect” but was a “step forward from the Government’s entrenched position on 2022/23 pay”.

“It was the power of collective unions standing together, with our members behind us, that brought the Government to the table and led to this improved offer.”

Unlike other health unions, the RCM had not previously voted to strike in England - with the turnout below the threshold for industrial action.

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