HMRC staff members may boycott the department's next employee satisfaction survey amid fears that offices with low scores could be lined up for early closure.
Alarm bells rang out after an executive committee member made comments to Revenue staff in Liverpool. Responding to the issue on HMRC's staff intranet, the committee member attempted to allay fears by stating that when deciding which offices were to be retained a range of factors were taken into account, such as performance, attendance and engagement.
In response to union pressure, HMRC's CEO, Dame Lesley Strathie wrote to employees in April to confirm that the only link between offices with low engagement in the staff satisfaction survey is that such offices will be less productive and low productivity is a factor in deciding where the axe should fall. In a second letter in May she attempted to further pacify employees by assuring that decisions on office closures would only be made after exhaustive consideration of a number of factors, which survey scores is not one of those factors.
A job in the civil service used to be considered safe and one for life but in these difficult economic times there are no certainties and HMRC and its staff are experiencing rough seas like so many others.
Leave a Reply