Thursday 14 April 2011

Off Sick



Members of the Public and Commercial Services union in HM Revenue and Customs have voted convincingly to take industrial action in opposition to a new policy on managing sickness.

In a ballot of more than 50,000 members, there was a good turnout of 41%, with 59% supporting strike action and 84% in favour of industrial action short of a strike.

The union is committed to trying to negotiate a settlement to the dispute and meetings are scheduled in the coming days.

PCS revenue and customs group secretary Peter Lockhart said: "This was a very good response to a ballot and, coupled with the clear vote in favour of action, it shows how strongly our members feel..."

We hope senior managers will now agree that trying to impose draconian new policies on their workforce is not the way forward, and we hope they will come back to the table with a willingness to resolve this dispute.


Source Politics

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22 comments:

  1. Votes for strike action
    Yes Votes: 12,946 (59.1%)
    No Votes: 8,971 (40.9%)

    Votes for action short of strike
    Yes Votes: 18,399 (84.2%)
    No Votes: 3,445 (15.8%)

    The 40.9% are the arse licks/junior managers who think that when the cuts come they will be elevated away from the Plebs, and will have their lovey dovey futures secured.

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  2. Good result, time to tell HMRC where to go, but the muppets who voted against (40.9) and (15.8) are the ones who snigger at colleagues on the Picket line and are the first ones on the phone to the Union when a HMRC manager says BOO! into their ear.

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  3. 14 April 2011 14:06, In my opinion the lower end managers are in more danger from the cuts than anyone else. If they get chopped the current service levels will just carry on (possible even get better).

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  4. Never mind the numbers you should be looking at the changes and what they will mean including:-
    people with contagious diseases returning to work and spreading infection throughout the workplace and in public - imagine the spreadon a packed bus or tube with pandemic swine flu - remember that?
    people suffering from any form of heart related condition returning to work because their manager is better informed than their consultant - some hope!
    workers suffering from stress maybe from bullying by managers returning to work early because they fear losing their job!
    yes I know that's what it is like in the real world, doesn't make it any more acceptible though.
    And what makes these managers instant diagnostic experts and providers of get well advice and heal thyself suggestions - Pacesetter, Parliament or profit, try profit and the amount of taxpayers dosh paid to private companies to provide advice and consultation across the piste, as they love to say.

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  5. 14 April 2011 17:57

    We know all that. Thats why there is going to be a strike soon.
    The strike is PCS members telling HMRC to shove sickness absence policy up their assess.

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  6. People are not machines that you just give a kick or bang with a hammer when they go wrong in the vain hope that will fix it- or just replace with another model.
    Sicknes is a fact of life - after all even though in the pacesetter imposed enviroment your encouraged to resist any recollection that you are an independent thinking Human Being - you are just that.
    I know my teamleader should be writing in the Lancet, he,s that good at diagnosing and avoiding/curing my ailments.
    They live in a fantasy world and sadly some of the biggest ass licking wanks actually believe the shite they hypocritically preach.
    im on cause for concern for being off sick in the two years - i dont know who is exactly supposed to be concerned cos im fucking not...

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  7. "We know all that. Thats why there is going to be a strike soon.
    The strike is PCS members telling HMRC to shove sickness absence policy up their assess."

    That's unless the management convince the union things are going to be done differently and they call off the strike at the last minute. Then things can just carry on as usual. As usual.

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  8. PCS needs to get its act together it takes a small fortune in membership subscriptions and hangs its flag on keeping people in work never mind anything else.
    Its not surprising but it is cause for concern as PCS does not take on management or whistleblow what is actually happening, do you wonder why?
    I think the biggest problem though is that PCS has become overwhelmed by the number of issues it has on its books.
    So the oppressed have little protection from the oppressors and the oppressors dont give a flying fU@k!
    No wonder they are the 103rd.
    By the way I tried to get some spares for my Honda yesterday, they are out of stock and the waiting time is an estimated 8 weeks. I know a Honda isn't a Toyota but you get my drift folks!

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. This just proves again how out of touch the Excoms and Straithie are, you finish bottom in the civil service survey you get slaughtered by your staff in your own survey and in order to re-engage and mend bridges what do you do you go and have a sick crackdown and upset your staff even more then when someone says maybe your policies are causing the large amount of sickness respond with "well Pacesetter will sort it".

    Wait until the new PDE's next year and the all new plans that are being planned across government departments to improves attitudes towards customers internally and externally.

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  11. Reference deleted by author message

    Didn't see it, but it must have been pretty bad to get knocked off this site Ken?

    Was it a UC or just a member of Excom lost in the ether?

    Who knows, Who cares?

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  12. I have two points to make :

    1) I am finishing today as I have corrective surgery booked for the end of this month with an estimated recovery time of 6 to 8 weeks (so there is me well over the trigger point!)
    2) My manager has been really supportive & understanding over the issue and has told me not to worry over my sick leave (and I trust him/her !) so not all managers are bad and act like robots, but as usual there are some who opt to follow the rules blindly, the Hitler Defence I believe its called.

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  13. 15 April 2011 03:50

    Your managers manager might not be pleased with you having to go for surgery.
    ;(

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  14. @ 15th April 03:50

    I admire your courage mentioning the "Hitler Defence" I recently made reference to the fact that the defence of "I was only following orders" has been outlawed in International Law since the Nurnberg trials (fact) and I was vilified as being a Nazi and automatically losing my arguement as I had mentioned any connection to the Nazis.I was also accused of infering that anyone using this excuse was a Nazi, which is not the case. Good luck with your surgery and a speedy recovery (not to get you back to work quickly lol.)

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  15. Well what a difference a day makes.
    Today HMRC has announced it intends to work closely with PCS and ARC to undertake an urgent review of its policy on attendance management and wellbeing "and is prepared to enter into a meaningful and timely dialogue with our joint commitments under the Employee Relations Agreement". Never too late to learn?
    All of a sudden we see words like reasonable, discretion, consistency, sympathetically, appropriate, support, obligations, and "managers should understand their role and how they should operate"!!!
    One could almost believe the pacesetter fairies forgot to pick up all the sheets related to the draft off the printer.
    So, the big question, Ooops, who got it wrong and why?

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  16. All of a sudden we see words like reasonable, discretion, consistency, sympathetically, appropriate, support, obligations, and "managers should understand their role and how they should operate"!!!

    These words will only be used until the threat of strike action is removed and then it will be business as normal.

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  17. Business as normal wont happen if Straithie downwards remain along with their demon child pacesetter. And if Hairnet gets a knighthood, Ken Dodd should be made a Saint!
    Many people now believe the crap has gone too far and the damage that has been done cannot be glossed over. Once Civil Servants get animated and agitated and start openly disccussing strike action you know things are bad, despite what the Mail keeps stating. But then the last semblence of a free press disappeared years ago.
    Thank heavens for Ken Frost, Private Eye, Guido Fawkes and a few others for keeping the truth out there.
    Tax doesn't need to be taxing, and the management don't need to act like petty dictators.
    The core values of the real Civil Service have been sacrificed to the god's of big money, offshore accounts (Mapeley) a useless idol called Pacesetter (a hollow log really)and blind adherence to failed policies and an IT black hole that if the truth were known would be enough to write a book about on its own..
    Trouble is its our money paying for these "games" and total SNAFU policies, and don't mention the real tax gap!
    Keep the faith Ken, more and more are adding their views at last.

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  18. I was told by a vat officer lately that the reasons for his uber-stupid and outrageous actions were because he was "following orders".

    I used to have respect for officers of HMCE (not HMRC), but now, just refer to them as 'the dirty dogs' - liars, cheats, vindictive, nasty and under-handed. Incompetence is just their excuse.

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  19. Yep, can't argue against that one.
    However, not all follow orders just because they are orders, real people with responsibility will always challenge that which is wrong morally or legally, just ain't that many left now.
    Don't bother complaining to HMRC you will end up frustrated as well as annoyed.
    The present day Pacesetter accolytes won't say boo to a goose and are pityful to watch, bit like Smeagol in Lord of The Rings. Excom have so much self belief that they are right they should be all living in the Dutch Antilles or some other tax haven, oh, they are, the UK! A better place would be with the Clangers on the moon.

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  20. 16 April 2011 19:39

    Oh but I do complain - A LOT. I have indeed ended up frustrated and annoyed, but I would rather do that than say nothing at all. Silence could be considered as consent and I do not consent.

    More and more people are not bending over and taking it up the backside anymore. The cracks have appeared and something will have to give...

    There are more of us than them, so the more who say no, the easier it will be. Complain... complain... complain - and never stop, until they do.

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  21. Horay, I am not alone!
    I think you are right, the worm has turned and if you remember when the Civil Service had to be "chipped" with IIP principles,you may also remember that some Departments couldn't chieve the pass markings originally. When they eventually rejigged parameters to accommodate previous failure, first time up afterwards these departments could not achieve IIP status a second time. What did IIP stand for? Why, Idiot's In Power of course!

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  22. The name of your site sums up my opinion of HMRC at the moment. Give us the staff to collect the tax, and we won't need to make the cuts we are making. Sack 25 per cent of the MPs not HMRC Staff. As for the sick absence policy it's a load of (comes out of the back of a cow and really stinks).

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