Hundreds of HM Land Registry staff have this week commenced action short of a strike over a civil service mandate to work in the office three days a week. The Public Services and Commercial Union says the action will have a 'hugely detrimental impact' on the organisation's ability to deliver services.
After voting for strike action in December, the union said nearly 4,000 members have begun an indefinite ‘work to rule’ this week. Land Registry employs over 6,000 people across 14 offices.
Wendy Doyle, Land Registry PCS deputy group president, said Land Registry relies heavily on the goodwill of staff to clear serious backlogs of work so the ‘work to rule’ will have a 'hugely detrimenal impact' on the organisation’s ability to deliver services.
PCS guidance states that members should not work longer than their contracted hours unless it suits their personal circumstances. ‘You should not work later than planned just to hit team, pod or project targets or in a casework environment to clear expedites. This will impact on HMLR’s performance and will place pressure on departmental management to resolve the dispute,’ the guidance says.
Members are also told not to cover other people’s jobs, and not to volunteer for management listening groups, focus groups and shadow committees. They should push non-cooperation and withdrawal of goodwill as far as possible but if they are directly instructed by their line manager to perform a task, they should do it rather than get suspended or disciplined. ‘You should write to your manager and ask for the instruction in writing and for the reasons why and make it clear that you are only carrying out the task under duress,’ the guidance says.
A spokesperson for Land Registry said: ‘We believe the forthcoming industrial action will causThe e minimal impact to our services. We will respond as needed to maintain essential services that support the property market, as we have always done during previous periods of industrial action.’
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