Thousands of Land Registry staff voted to strike after being told to work in offices three days a week, potentially disrupting an expected surge in house buying ahead of stamp duty changes later this year.
The Public and Commercial Services Union said its members voted in favor of industrial action after the department informed workers that they would have reduced hours of working from home.
The union said 3,800 staff across 14 offices in England and Wales were affected.
The vote for industrial action took place last Friday, with the union adding that staff were also concerned about government departments’ “inappropriate use of personal data and having to take on additional responsibilities without additional pay”.
Fran Heathcote, PCS general secretary, said: “The government does not seem to realize that imposing arbitrary targets on office attendance will not improve productivity and is unpopular with staff.
“If they want a motivated, hard-working workforce, ministers should trust their staff to have some say in their working conditions, rather than acting like Victorian bosses.
“It is not too late for management to avoid industrial action by ending this dispute.”
The union has not yet outlined when a strike might occur.
The move comes ahead of an expected surge in home buying in early April ahead of a stamp duty change that will see stamp duty reduced for first-time buyers paying up to £425,000 for a home.
Nationwide chief economist Robert Gardner said: “The impending changes to stamp duty are likely to create volatility as buyers buy in advance to avoid the additional tax.
“This will lead to a surge in transaction volumes in the first three months of 2025, especially March.”
The Land Registry said the move was in line with government regulations and that a minimum attendance rate of 60 per cent for most staff was the optimal work balance for civil servants.
A spokesman for the department added: “During previous strikes we have been providing essential services such as search, registration (including expedited) and customer contact and there is no reason why any potential future action would affect any upcoming transactions.”
“We will continue to review our processes and inform our customers of the steps we will take should the PCS union call for any industrial action.”
The agency added that the employee information it uses “is performance-related data, not personal data”.
