JOBS THREAT…The Revenue and Customs offices in Enniskillen
A TOTAL of 24 jobs could go at the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) office in Enniskillen, and it is feared that a reorganisation of the agency could see the office here close altogether.
HMRC has announced a voluntary redundancy scheme affecting staff in four of its offices in the North, including Enniskillen with a total of 240 jobs eligible for redundancy.
The HMRC spokesman said the increased number of online customers has reduced the need for physical sites.
“This change has seen the nature of our work shift away from the mass processing work of the past to the more specialist, but less labour-intensive, roles required in effective policing of the tax system. As a result some areas of our work do not require as many staff,” he said.
Fermanagh South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew, pictured, is to travel to Westminster to press the British government to reconsider the shake-up at HMRC.
Barney Lawn, spokesman for the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) told the Herald how staff were left ‘dismayed’ and in a ‘state of shock’ after they heard the news.
“The only explanation given to staff was centralisation of work and that the office did not fit with the department’s medium or long term plans.
“The department are saying they have to lose 11,000 jobs nationally across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales by 2015, but we argue that the department’s rationale is totally skewed. Job losses and office closures hurt the economy and are a long term disaster in waiting – the loss of expertise will never be recovered. We are actually under-staffed not the other way round and the argument is sustained by the over-time still available for staff.
“The areas targeted are economically depressed areas where there is little chance of re-employment and it is contrary to what the Northern Ireland Assembly are doing with the decentralisation of the Civil Service. Here we have a Whitehall department acting contrary to the Executive,” he added.
And Mr Lawn said the union would rise to the challenge to save jobs in Enniskillen.
“PCS will robustly argue for the retention of the offices and jobs. It is not the jobs that are going, they’re transferring the work centrally. We are currently lobbying the MPs and MLAs and will continue this to pressure the department to rethink its strategy.”
Asked whether he thought the jobs could be saved, Mr Lawn was upbeat.
“We fought this in 2006 and were successful and we hope we can repeat that success.
“They were going to close similar offices in areas, Enniskillen included back then and we fought to retain it so we’re back in the same ball game again and we will fight again.”
UUP MLA Tom Elliott feared for the future of the office in Enniskillen
“This is a major concern, particularly in the west of the province whereby this would leave a huge gap in HMRC front line customer service provision.
“There appears to be a gradual removal of public sector services away from Fermanagh – This would be a double blow to the area, the loss of jobs and loss of front line customer services.”
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