IRD Staff Vote To Strike Despite Threat

“Inland Revenue Department staff voted today in favour of strike action despite a heavy handed threat from IRD to suspend them if they did so,” said Martin Cooney, Organiser of the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE). NUPE is one of three Unions representing IRD staff nationally.

“Our members have voted to strike from 9am tomorrow 4 May by refusing to undertake work outside their job descriptions,” said Martin Cooney.

“Our members thought it would be an industrial first if they were to be suspended for just doing their job and declining to ‘volunteer’ for other work,” said Martin Cooney. “Our members did not join the army - they thought they worked for IRD.”

Martin Cooney stated that the NUPE Collective Agreement negotiations began in October 2002 and IRD have not changed its position since that time.

“Work affected first up will be that of staff who are involved in managing peak calls and other staff who are doing correspondence and other services work instead of collecting debt,” said Martin Cooney.

“NUPE members have also protested recently about the inequity of the 1% pay offer made by IRD to team members as opposed to the 8.8% to team leaders. This hardly inspires staff to volunteer to work outside their job description.”

© Scoop Media