Lin Homer’s message proves that PCS can’t play the employer’s game

On the HMRC intranet today (29 October), Lin Homer has announced that the Department have withdrawn from talks over Jobs & Staffing.

The talks, which began on 8 October and were scheduled to run until 4 November, were over a number of issues which PCS remains in dispute with the department over. Staff in HMRC are facing job cuts and office closures in a number of areas, alongside the privatisation of work and a draconian performance management system.

PCS had taken strike action in late June and late July, as well as industrial action short of a strike including an overtime ban. The Group Executive Committee voted to suspend action in order to engage in talks without preconditions at the insistence of HMRC, who refused to talk while any action was going on.

Lin Homer’s announcement comes thirteen days after the announcement of considerable job cuts and office closures by HMRC, and only underlines that the department never had any serious intent to resolve the dispute.

The arrogance of ExCom

“Performance Management is here to say.”

So says Lin Homer, at every possible opportunity, especially in the face of staff and the union pointing out that it’s an ineffective and highly discriminatory system. But while the cynics may have argued that the reason it was “here to stay” was because Homer was blindly parroting Tory ideology while abetting their attacks on civil servants, we know now that they were wrong.

It’s also here to stay because she gets a hefty bonus out of the whole rotten charade.