TAX OFFICE clerks began their second week of rolling strikes yesterday in as many months in their fightback against job cuts, heavy workloads and worsening conditions.

Years of job cuts have left taxpayers with telephone queries on call waiting — along with pile-ups of post. And private bailiffs have been drafted in to pick up full-timers’ flack in the department’s rent-collection division.

The wave of industrial action kicked off yesterday, when tax workers downed tools in Wales and north-west England.

Tomorrow will see the bureaux in the English midlands and Scotland shut down — while workforces in Northern Ireland and the remainder of England will withdraw their labour on Thursday.

Public-sector union PCS is disputing the organisation’s new performance management system — which will see an arbitrary 10 per cent of the workforce slapped with disciplinary procedures.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “HMRC plays an essential role in our economy and our society, collecting the taxes that fund the other public services we all rely on. But it is being systematically undermined by unnecessary and politically motivated cuts.

“These strikes demonstrate we are serious about stopping these damaging cuts and making a positive case for proper investment in this crucial department.”

Over 280 of the organisation’s walk-in tax enquiry centres are set to close — with 2,000 fixed-term workers facing compulsory redundancy.

PCS staged a similar series of rolling strikes in June.

Campaigners said that cuts to tax staff made a mockery of the government’s tough talk on tax evasion.