Yesterday The Public Commercial Services Union (PCS) started their ‘targeted strike action’ which affects some of their staff working in the HM Land Registry’s (HMLR) customer service teams including the Customer Support Centre (CSC).
The strike action will last until the 3rd of March and the PCS says it is because of ‘pay, pensions, redundancy terms and job security. The strike comes after PCS members joined the largest civil service strike in a decade which took place earlier this year.
Despite the strike, the Land Registry says that its main services ‘with all-time critical services required for property transactions’ will continue as normal. This includes pre-completion searches (most of these are automated) and critically urgent applications that have been accelerated.
The CSC has said that it will continue as usual this week and will be operating on Friday 24th of February and Friday 3rd of March as a result of the strike action.
However, the strike will affect contact with HM Land Registry. A land registry spokesperson commented, “Customers will likely experience longer call waiting times than usual and possibly reduced call hours. We apologise in advance for any inconvenience this might cause and would encourage all customers to use our online contact form.”
General Secretary for the PCS, Mark Serwotka remarked: “As long as the government shows no sign of resolving this dispute, we’ll show no signs to stopping strike action. Ministers seem able to find money for just about everything other than giving their own employees a decent pay rise. PCS members have had enough of being taken for granted.”
For more information, please get in touch with Laura Catania at laura.catania@attwells.com
