Be a part of the National Campaign in HMRC: Make sure you vote!

Increasingly, across the civil service, central government has now become a minimum wage employer for scores of thousands of staff. In HMRC, that’s reflected by the fact that earlier this month, almost 1 in 3 staff in the department received a necessary uplift, just so they could keep in touch with the legal minimum being paid in other departments.

We can’t keep relying on uplifts because of the lowest pay allowable by law. As a result, the union’s central demands in our national campaign, are focused on:

• a cost-of-living rise, with an inflation-proofed increase plus pay restoration
• pay equality across departments
• a living wage of £15 per hour
• a London Weighting provision of a minimum £5,000 per year
• a minimum of 35 days annual leave
• a significant shortening of the working week with no loss of pay.

Last year, the action we took under the national campaign, secured a major increase in the money available under the Treasury’s pay guidance, and the additional ‘cost-of-living payment’, demonstrating that when the employer is not prepared to move, industrial action can deliver real, positive results.

Have you voted yet?

You should by now have received your ballot paper through the post; and you need to complete it and return it by post. We know it seems archaic to have to fill in a piece of paper and send it through the post, just so you can have a vote; but here we are in the 21^st Century, and the government’s anti-union laws won’t allow us to organise industrial action ballots electronically. Basically, the government has put a minimum 50% turnout law in place, then made it as hard as possible for you to vote in the ballot.

Obviously, PCS hope that you agree with us that to secure better pay and conditions, we need to take action. However you decide to vote though, it’s vital that you use your vote. Under those anti-union laws, if we don’t get a 50% turnout, the government declares the entire vote invalid.

To put this in perspective, the turnouts in the three House of Commons by-elections held so far in 2024, was 39.7% in Rochdale, 38% in Wellingborough and 37.1% in Kingswood - and that was for seats in the primary law-making body for the entire United Kingdom.

PCS is a democratic union, and we believe everyone’s vote should count; so however you decide to vote, make sure you vote.

For your vote to count, it needs to reach the independent scrutineer by 12:00noon on Monday 13 May 2024, but don’t leave it too late to vote. As part of their systematic plan to suppress our trade union right to stand up for fair pay and conditions, the government is banking on you putting it behind the clock on the mantelpiece and forgetting about it. If you haven’t voted yet, then you should vote now.

Tell us when you’ve voted!

Given what’s at stake, and the importance of delivering the vote for action, PCS are again calling and texting members to encourage you to vote, if you haven’t already. If you have already voted (and thanks, if you have!) then to avoid us calling you to ask you to do what you’ve done already, make sure that you let us know you’ve voted.

You can do this by Logging-on to PCS Digital and hitting the ‘Update Ballot Status’ button. You’ll need to have registered for PCS Digital to do this; and if you haven’t, you can register here. (If you don’t know your membership number, it will be on the last email you received from the PCS R&C Group, or you can ask your local PCS representative, who can look it up for you.) In the unlikely event that you haven’t received your ballot paper yet, you can use PCS Digital to request a replacement too.

Alternatively, simply speak to your local PCS representative and ask them to record it on the union’s Organising Hub.

Join PCS

As your trade union, PCS continues to negotiate with HMRC to stand-up for your interests. If you’ve read this briefing and you aren’t yet a member of PCS, then you should join today.