Telford Jobcentre staff join strike
Monday 18th April 2011, 11:30AM BST.
MORE THAN 250 Jobcentre Plus staff in Shropshire joined thousands of workers across the country today for a 24-hour strike in an escalating row over working conditions.
About a dozen of the 255 workers on strike from the Telford call centre took to the picket line at 7am today in a row over conditions and targets set for staff, which includes limited toilet breaks.
The Public and Commercial Services union said picket lines were mounted outside more than 30 call centres across the country.
A spokesman for PCS said there were 255 members at the centre at New Town House in Telford Town Centre on strike, out of the centre’s 340-strong workforce.
The union said workers, many of whom had never taken industrial action before, were receiving “massive” support from members of the public.
Callers to the centres were being told to ring back tomorrow.
Paul Devine, West Midlands regional secretary for PCS at the Department of Work and Pensions, was on the picket line in Telford this morning.
He said: “This dispute is about staff having to meet targets on new claims. Staff are expected to spend no more than 16 minutes on someone claiming incapacity benefit.
“If staff run over this, the call handling times are deemed to be inefficient.
“If some people have to claim for the first time, it is not unreasonable to think that staff might have to spend a little more time with them. Every time the staff log off to go to the toilet, that’s recorded. They are allowed no more than 12 minutes for toilet breaks a day.
“This strike is very much about flexibility for the staff and better service.”
In a ballot of the union’s 7,000 members in the call centres, 70 per cent of those who took part voted for strike action, with a turnout of 43 per cent.
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “We are disappointed that despite three-quarters of staff across the centres having not voted to go on strike, the PCS have decided to take industrial action.”
By Jason Lavan
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Oh dear these poor souls will dig a very big hole for themselves .
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ah the irony of it…..
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They have a cheek to strike, I think this is a slap in the face of the thousands who cannot get a job and are actively looking for one.If they have grievences take it up with the management they are very lucky to have a job.
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Show ‘em the door – plenty more on the dole to take their jobs.
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Absolutely
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Staff that are living in cloud cuckoo land, Hardly a strenuous days work is it? all you do is follow procedures on your desk top PC,s too ensure that those such as myself who are unfortunatly out of work, are “Activly Seeking” employment, SHAME on you all, no doubt the Leftie Union leaders are behind it all, toy lot are so smug in your cocooned fantasy world that you live in, put the shoe on the other foot Try Aldi and Not Sainsburys on the pittance that the unemployed recieve each fortnight.
Setting an example NOT!
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Self Centred Union Muppets…..
I wonder when are they due their first visit to Planet Reality?
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get the managers out and start again ,all they do is look after themselves.
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These Contact Centre staff work very hard & go out of their way to making a claim to benefit as painless as possible, making sure that people receive the greatest of respect & are treated fairly,it’s normally those on benefits that are not looking for work who leave derogatory remarks & not the honest members of the public on benefit that see being on Jobseekers as a stopgap to work, good luck to these hard working Civil Servants they deserve decent working conditions to carry on doing the good work that they do.
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Well speaking as a person who was last unemployed in 1981 ,
“These Contact Centre staff work very hard & go out of their way to making a claim to benefit as painless as possible, making sure that people receive the greatest of respect & are treated fairly,” you base this on what??
“normally those on benefits that are not looking for work who leave derogatory remarks & not the honest members of the public on benefit that see being on Jobseekers as a stopgap to work”, You make this assumption based on what ??
Sorry Eric the British Tax payer see these people as having decent working conditions the British worker is very well protected in the work place with out the need for unions and strikes , get of your bottoms and work for a living and stop moaning or hand in your notice.
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Well as someone who was last unemployed in 1981 you would be rather out of touch with Jobcentre practices & not best placed to have a opinion on whether these people have a gripe about their working conditions, try walking in another persons moccasins before making assumptions!
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I have worked in a call centre for a different company for 20 years. Of course there are call handling targets to be met along with time spent for ‘toilet breaks’. How would it work otherwise? Someone can spend all day ‘off line’? That’s never going to happen. If one has a problem and needs to spend more time taking out such activities there isn’t a manager in the land who wouldn’t make exceptions. This is the world we live in: call centres WILL have targets. The shorter calls offset the longer ones and ultimately one can only receive additional training if they are taking longer than is necessary on a call. No one within my organisation (I’m loathed to mention the name but it’s a huge telecommunications company) has ever lost their job based on not meeting these targets: the company wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. Get back to your job and fight managers who bully and ask for additional training for what they think you’re doing wrong. Unions are there to support you if you’re being targeted without additional training-give it a go. I speak from experience. It’s unreal to think there will not be targets to meet. Oh what a lovely world if we could all do as we wanted, whilst being paid to do so.
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This is a Contact Centre not a Call Centre, there is no product to sell, customers would rather the Jobcentre staff were able to give Quality instead of having to worry about Quantity, Keep call times & Targets for call centres like BT & allow the Jobcentre to do their job.
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I suggest you read paragraph 2 where you will see quite clearly that this is a call centre.
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The Shropshire Star mistakenly called it a Call Centre, a easy mistake to make, if you check Directgov.com you will find that they are Contact Centre’s it always pays to check your facts before making a statement!
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Stop whining will you,at least you have a job (reasonably paid to) unlike many people across the UK.
If you don’t like the job you could always take the advice given by Lord Digby Jones to people made redundant.”retrain as a plumber”
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