Over 300 employees of Fujitsu Services UK, who work for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), are planning to strike starting from 17 January 2024. This protest is a result of dissatisfaction over pay and could potentially disrupt the government agency’s self-assessment tax return process. These employees are members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union, and they rejected a 3-4% pay increase from Fujitsu after learning that their counterparts in Japan were offered salary increases of up to 29%. PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, criticized the UK government for giving “lucrative contracts” to Fujitsu despite its treatment of UK workers. Most of the employees affected by the strike work for HMRC in Stratford and Telford. The action includes rolling out overtime bans, working to rule, and refusing on-call work. The PCS stated that this strike is likely to disrupt individuals trying to complete their self-assessment tax returns by the end of January. Fujitsu responded by expressing its commitment to resolving the situation through pay negotiations and ensuring operational continuity for customers. This strike comes at a challenging time for Fujitsu as it faces public scrutiny regarding its Horizon IT system’s involvement in the long-running Post Office scandal. The scandal, in which 736 subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of crimes between 2000 and 2015, gained national attention due to a documentary and drama broadcasted by ITV.
Menu
