PCS Scotland Press Release - “WICK WON WORK” UNION VICTORY

“WICK WON WORK” UNION VICTORY

Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) members and the people in the town of Wick are today celebrating a successful campaign to keep the Wick tax office open until 2014. 

A "model campaign" to prevent the closure of a tax office in a small town in the far north of Scotland has successfully won a reprieve, the PCS union announces.

"WON" Logo - available in a variety of colours!

The union-led Wick Wants Work campaign, launched seven months ago to stop the planned closure of the office in 2012, has won support from members of the public, politicians from all parties and other trade unions, notably the Scottish Trades Union Congress.



As a result HM Revenue and Customs senior management has announced the office, which employs just 20 staff but covers a geographical area the size of Belgium, will stay open until 2014.

The town offers no other redeployment opportunities and the union has pledged to continue to fight to keep the office open permanently.

Like others across the UK, tax compliance staff in Wick work to help tackle the estimated £120 billion in taxes that are evaded, avoided or uncollected every year.

PCS Scottish Secretary Lynn Henderson said: "This has been a fantastic campaign which has been fought and won locally.  I am proud of the role PCS members have played in the campaign and not only has it put Wick on the map for those fighting the Con Dem cuts, but can be held up as an exemplar campaign model across the trade union movement involving communities and trade unions locally and nationally.

"Our members have vowed to continue with campaign and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the local community to ensure the threat of closure is withdrawn.”

PCS Office Secretary Allan Tait said “we have put a tremendous amount of effort into the campaign and I would like to thank everyone for their support to date.  This is, however, not the end of the campaign but simply an important key milestone.  We have a long a very long road ahead of us until we achieve our ultimate goal which is to remove the closure threat completely.”


ENDS


Notes
The Public & Commercial Services Union represents over 270,000 members in the civil and public services and in the privatised commercial sector, over 34,000 of which are in Scotland.  It is the 5th largest trade union affiliated to the TUC and STUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka and the president is Janice Godrich - on Twitter @ janicegodrich.  The Scottish secretary is Lynn Henderson.

- Follow PCS Scotland on Twitter @pcs_scotland

Huzzah!

Thanks to James in Campaigns for this:

Snappier than "Wick Got Work" - the perils of trying to break news!  This is the line we're using now...

NEWSFLASH - WICK GOT WORK!

WICK GOT WORK!

We are absolutely ecstatic to report the news that HMRC at 2pm today announced to Campaigning PCS Members in the Wick Tax Office that in the face of massive political pressure, the decision has been taken to retain an office presence in Wick until at least 2014.

The Wick Wants Work campaign has, over the last seven months, worked hard to build the profile and the political contact that led to this Political pressure being applied, and our thanks are due to everyone who has shared the message and supported the Campaign.

Formed and directed by Members of the Public & Commercial Services Union, the Campaign has benefitted hugely from the support of the public in Caithness and across Scotland, and of PCS Reps, Members and other Trade Unionists, in  particular the General Council and Staff of the Scottish Trades Union Congress.

Wick is a unique place, with Unique characteristics.  A wee town in the far North of Scotland, it represented a Unique challenge in terms of the complete lack of redeployment opportunities for staff should the Office have Closed, and the Geographical Area covered by the office (an area the size of Belgium) added weight to the message that the retention of HMRC Compliance Work was vital.

Welcoming the decision today, the Executive Committe of PCS for members in Revenue & Customs offered particular congratulations and Thanks to Allan Tait, local PCS Office Secretary in Wick, to Lewis Bevan,Lorna Merry and Simon Boniface as the negotiating team, and to the members of the Executive that have been active in supporting the Campaign.

Whilst very happy with the reprieve provided by today's announcement, Campaigners are clear that the Campaign is not over, and that the fight to retain these jobs, and to bring more work to Caithness, both in HMRC and in other areas of both the Public and the Private Sectors will continue.

Thanks again to everyone for your support thus far, and for the support that you will give in the future.  Today's news once again demonstrates that when the political will is there, no fate, no matter how bleakly it is presented, is absolute.  The about turn by HMRC on Wick is a win for the Campaign, and is a win for campaigners against closures across the UK.

Wick Got Work because of you.  Thank you.

Campaign Badges now available!

Actual Dimensions 30mm x 20mm approx, enamel.

With the petition at http://wickwants.epetitions.net still on the go, we are happy to announce that you can now display your support for the Wick Wants Work campaign (and donate to the PCS Revenue & Customs Group Hardship Fund) through the purchase of one of these limited edition enamel badges.  The first 500 have been produced in silver and dark blue, and are available at the price of £3 each (although donations of more are greatly appreciated from those who can afford it) or £2.50 each for orders of more than one.

If you would like to buy a badge (or badges) please email Drummondpcs (at) AOL (dot) com.  Trade Union Branches wishing to order a larger number can do so on a sale or return basis.

EDIT:  A limited run of 10 badges are being sold on auction site eBay - these badges will be accompanied by a personalised letter of thanks from the campaign and some stickers. 5 are currently up, the first being at this link - bidding opens at £3 (plus P&P) and after fees all of the bid price (and any change from actual postage costs possibly being slightly lower) will again go to the hardship fund.

June Update

A collage of some of the supporting photos we have received / taken

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but things are moving on a daily basis, making it very difficult to choose the point at which to give an update.

Currently, after further political interventions by John Thurso and Danny Alexander, HMRC are actively investigating the possibility of alternative, cheaper, office accommodation offered by Highlands & Islands Enterprise.

Issues remain, however, around the work that would be done in these new premises, as thanks to a Recruitment Freeze over the past five years, HMRC's Compliance section (the people who chase up tax dodgers) say they are worried about succession planning.

Campaigners have highlighted that this is, in effect, a vicious circle - the department decided to close Wick Office, so they didn't recruit anyone new.  Because there's nobody new, they believe they have to close the office.  The Wick Wants Work Campaign has therefore drawn up a petition at http://wickwants.epetitions.net/, which we would ask you both to sign and to share widely with friends and colleagues in support of the Campaign to bring work to Wick. 

With a bit of lateral thinking, the succession solution that Wick Wants Work Campaigners see as the obvious one is to recruit new blood into HMRC Wick - Unemployment in the area is high, and there is a skilled potential workforce in the area who would love the chance to get involved in closing the Tax Gap and working to create a better society. £900 million is being reinvested into HMRC Compliance work, and there is no reason why a tiny fraction of this could not be invested in Caithness to succession-proof Wick.

While Wick Wants Work Campaigners are advancing these arguments, however, the sword of Damocles hangs over the Office.  At the start of June, Voluntary Redundancy offers were made to staff under the terms of the new Civil Service Compensation Scheme.

The new scheme, which was imposed against the wishes of staff by an act of Parliament, is structured in such a way as to penalise staff for failure to volunteer for redundancy - and, even if the should choose voluntary redundancy, is worth less than 2/3 of the entitlement of many under the former scheme.


A further meeting is being arranged with John Thurso MP, and Wick will be high on the agenda when the PCS Union holds a reception for MPs on the 6th of July.

Your support thus far has been invaluable, and we hope you will sign the petition at http://wickwants.epetitions.net/ and share the link as widely as possible to add to the pressure on HMRC to commit to supporting the Caithness economy.

PCS Group Conference Unanimously supports Wick Wants Work

Just a brief note to share this photo and highlight the fact that the PCS Revenue & Customs Group Conference unanimously carried the Emergency Motion moved by Aberdeen & Inverness Branch below:



 "That this Group Conference expresses its great concern that, despite the absence of alternative work within Reasonable Daily Travel, HMRC chose, on the 9th of March, to announce their intention to vacate their premises in Wick, and offer Members there voluntary exits.

This Conference congratulates members in Wick on their resolve to fight for the retention of their jobs, and endorses the campaigning goals of the "Wick Wants Work" Campaign, as detailed at http://wickwantswork.blogspot.com.

Conference calls upon the Group Executive to continue to support members in Wick, and across Aberdeen & Inverness Branch as they fight to keep jobs in Caithness, and instructs the GEC negotiators to leave no avenue unexplored in their attempts to ensure that agreements are honoured and alternative work found.

In commending the campaign, and the efforts of the GEC thus far in support of these members, Conference makes clear its forthright opposition to any suggestion of unwanted compulsory redundancy, and instructs the GEC to, should this be mooted by the Official Side at any point, both to convene immediately to consider the strongest Group response possible and to refer the matter to the National Executive Committee for their consideration of a National response.

Conference furthermore takes this opportunity to ask Delegates, Trainees, Observers, Guest Speakers and members of the GEC and VOAC to dig deep in their pockets in support of the Group Hardship Fund, buy a "Wick Wants Work!" Badge and have their photograph taken wearing it in support of the campaign."

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, we didn't get the badges done, but the paragraph before was the important one, and Conference Unanimously supported the motion as moved by Mark Chapman, Branch President.

In other news, on Friday 13th May, Campaigners met with Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to express concerns regarding the proposed closure of Wick Tax Office.

The meeting, which lasted approximately twenty minutes, hopefully ended well, with Danny Alexander expressing his support for the retrention of HMRC work in Wick in alternative, cheaper premises, and agreeing to wreite to Lesley Strathie setting out his support for such.

Wick Wants Work statement on Caithness, Sutherland & Ross Election

Follwing the announcement yesterday of the Election to Holyrood of Rob Gibson as the constituency MSP for Caithness, Sutherland & Ross, the Wick Wants Work Campaign would like to extend our congratulations to Rob, who, as a major plank in an excellent campaign, made his support both for the 20 staff in Wick HMRC, and the wider Wick Wants Work campaign, very public, and raised the profile of both considerably, for which we are very grateful.

Rob Gibson, the new Member of the Scottish Parliament for Caithness, Sutherland & Ross,  pictured alongside the other candidates at the recent "Wick Wants Work" Hustings in Wick Assembly Rooms

The other candidates in the election, John Mackay, Edward Mountain and Robbie Rowantree, were also vocal in their support, and we commend each one of them on fighting good, clean campaigns in the purest of spirits.  We hope their support for the campaign will continue as active citizens, councillors and members of the community, and we wish them well.


The Holyrood elections have done much to focus minds on the Caithness economy, and we cannot let the increased profile of the campaign diminish.  The unprecedented result, both in terms of a massive swing in the Caithness, Sutherland & Ross constituency and across Scotland as a whole, reflect a strong tide of public opinion in Scotland against the Westminster coalition Government and its austerity measures, and across Scotland, SNP candidates made clear their support for a Tax Justice agenda that would ensure fairness for all, and for a growth based strategy to tackle the economic downturn.


Keeping the Wick Tax Office open, and investing in sustainable jobs in Caithness, would contribute to both of these goals, and we will shortly be writing to Rob and the First Minister, Alex Salmond, who was also a vocal supporter of the Campaign, highlighting this and asking them to outline how they intend to help progress the Campaign's goals.