THOUSANDS of HM Revenue and Customs workers will stage walkouts on the first working day of the next tax year.
Disruption has been predicted at offices across Scotland in the culmination of a "long weekend" of disruption as the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union fights for better pay and pensions for members.
In Scotland, hundreds of members of the PCS will leave their desks today in a dispute over pay and pensions. Across the UK, about 55,000 PCS members are involved.
The new tax year officially began on Saturday, but offices were gearing up for a busy start to the first working day.
Picket lines will be set up outside offices across the country, including call centres, processing offices and the face-to-face inquiry centres. Two of these are expected at one of the busiest HMRC, in East Kilbride.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "These strikes are part of an on-going campaign of industrial action and protests to cause disruption for the Government at key times and put pressure on ministers who are refusing to even talk to us.
"Civil and public servants are working harder than ever to provide the services we all rely on, but instead of rewarding them, the Government is imposing cuts to their pay, raiding their pensions and trying to rip up their basic working conditions."
A spokesman for the HMRC said that phone lines will remain open until 8pm, but say it may take longer to get through to contact centre advisers during the action.
They advised that non-urgent issues, when pos-sible, should be left until later in the week.
He added: "We will do everything possible to maintain essential services to the public."
The strike follows a walkout by PCS members in other Government departments, courts, driving test centres and museums on Friday, as part of a three-month campaign over cuts, which started with a national strike on Budget day, March 20. The National Museum of Scotland was among the buildings affected, as it shut at 1pm.
A 24-hour strike in the Home Office and UK Border Agency planned for tomorrow was postponed after a legal challenge, but will now be escalated to a weeklong series of walkouts across various parts of the department.
The PCS has also held talks with other unions about co-ordinating industrial action against the Government's austerity measures and spending cuts.
Asked if he was talking with other union leaders about a general strike, Mr Serwotka said: "We are having a discussion."
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