Jobcentre staff go on strike

Union members in 32 call centres in England, Scotland and Wales take action over 'draconian' working conditions

Thousands of Jobcentre staff will go on strike on Monday in a long-running row over "oppressive working conditions and unrealistic targets".

More than 6,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union in 32 call centres in England, Scotland and Wales will walk out in a repeat of industrial action first taken last year.

They claim "draconian" conditions are preventing them from providing a decent service.

The PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said: "With unemployment remaining high and our economy in the grip of recession, it is shameful that Jobcentre bosses are still refusing to let their staff provide the kind of help and advice that people need.

"These call centres provide a vital lifeline. Inquiries are often complicated, and people struggling to find their way around the benefits system are often understandably desperate and upset, but staff are being forced to end calls as quickly as possible just to meet an artificial target.

"Our members care about the services they provide and they want to be able to help people properly, not have to fob them off."

The union said Jobcentre bosses were only interested in getting claimants off the phone rather than dealing with their inquiries properly.

Thanks wub.

Nature of call centres really though, innit? I worked in a similar housing call centre where the ethos was much the same. So much so, that temp staff were eventually brought in with little or no training, just to field calls.

Irony is however, the lack of training and eagerness to get people off the phones and meet KPIs, meant people invariably had to call back to chase up stuff that never got done right in the first place.

I did try and explain this to management but they weren't very keen on listening.

Actual, physical job centres are on the way out too, especially with these new 'training providers'.

Apparently, a new system is now being rolled out across the country whereby you no longer get your allotted four mins with an actual job centre advisor when you go to sign-on. Instead, you submit your work 'diary' at reception, who issue a new one for the next two weeks. If this diary is not completed to somebody, somewhere's satisfaction, your money will be stopped until any issues can be ironed out.

Woe betide you if you have any issues with the provider, also. I did and tried to complain, but was told to do so via the provider?!

Bye, bye Job Centre.

suelily

13 August 2012 2:26AM

1st side of the coin; these people are not trained to handle suicidal people, and that is happening, 2nd side of coin; havnt they realised yet that they are going to be made redundant ????? ask atos

A good friend of mine works for the Social Fund doing the budgeting loans and she has described it as a "glorified call centre" on a couple of occasions. The Social Fund is being phased out and local authorities will be responsible for it I believe.

Although she isn't in the Job Centre, it's still DWP and she isn't very happy about the reforms. Far from being a Fascist bully boy, she is actually a very nice lady who genuinely wants to help people.