× Search rightsnet
Search options

Where

Benefit

Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

From

to

Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Universal credit administration  →  Thread

Universal Credit staff vote on strike action

shawn mach
Administrator

rightsnet.org.uk

Send message

Total Posts: 3773

Joined: 14 April 2010

Universal Credit call handlers are to vote on whether to hold a major strike after being treated with “contempt”.

Up to 700 Department for Work and Pensions agents in Wolverhampton and Walsall are poised to walk out for two days in a row over heavy workloads.

The PCS union says the system is crippled by “severe under investment, staff shortages and criticism from claimants on how they are treated”.

Chiefs are demanding 5,000 new staff, full contracts for fixed-term workers, an end to “management by statistics” and a limit on the number of phone calls each case manager has to handle.

More: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/dwp-universal-credit-staff-vote-13990005.amp

 

shawn mach
Administrator

rightsnet.org.uk

Send message

Total Posts: 3773

Joined: 14 April 2010

Strike is on ..

Universal Credit call handlers have voted to take strike action after being treated with “utter contempt” by their employers at the DWP.

90% of the workers who voted in a ballot in Wolverhampton and Walsall backed strike action, the PCS union announced today.

It means two days of strike action are now due to take place on March 11-12 involving 274 staff.

DWP Universal Credit staff vote to strike after being treated with ‘contempt’: mirror.co.uk
Walsall and Wolverhampton Ballot Result: pcs.org.uk

Daphne
Administrator

rightsnet writer / editor

Send message

Total Posts: 3537

Joined: 14 March 2014

With universal credit staff at Walsall and Wolverhampton out on strike today and tomorrow, Canterbury UC service centre has also voted for strike action endorsing five key demands -

- 5000 extra staff to deal with the existing caseloads in service centres
- Written agreement with DWP and the union on consultation
- Limiting case manager calls to thirty per week.
- A written agreement preventing management by statistic
- Limits to the size of the national telephony teams – no return to contact centre.

Canterbury Universal Credit Service Centre votes for action

Daphne
Administrator

rightsnet writer / editor

Send message

Total Posts: 3537

Joined: 14 March 2014

Walsall and Wolverhampton UC Service Centres - Further Strike -

PCS members in the Universal Credit Service Centres in Walsall and Wolverhampton to take further two days strike action on Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 May,  in their campaign for more staff and improved working conditions.

Daphne
Administrator

rightsnet writer / editor

Send message

Total Posts: 3537

Joined: 14 March 2014

PCS reports that following the strike action in Walsall and Wolverhampton -

PCS is currently consulting members in other Universal Credit sites that could lead to the strikes spreading to other offices.

Ros
Administrator

editor, rightsnet.org.uk

Send message

Total Posts: 1323

Joined: 6 June 2010

Further report from PCS says that balloting started yesterday in three universal credit service centres - Stockport, Walsall and Wolverhampton - over attacks on working practices and the fact that workloads are increasing while the workforce is decreasing.

Ros
Administrator

editor, rightsnet.org.uk

Send message

Total Posts: 1323

Joined: 6 June 2010

PCS reports that universal credit staff in Stockport are striking for two days next week, and that -

‘In a ballot declared earlier this month, members voted 91.9% in favour of strike action and 95% in favour of action short of strike on a 71.4% turnout. Our members will be taking strike action next week, on Tuesday (27) and Wednesday (28), with a demand for extra staff to be recruited and for working practices to be changed to allow them to process the cases of some of the most vulnerable members of the community.

Staffing at the Universal Credit Service Centre, Millennium House in Stockport has been in decline since its introduction in 2016/17. Despite existing staff being switched to UC to support hard-pressed members and further staff from the remaining legacy command incoming in September, PCS members are clear this is not going to tackle the problem of increasing workloads and the demands placed upon staff.’

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
forum member

Information and advice resources - Age UK

Send message

Total Posts: 3196

Joined: 7 January 2016

This interview by the journalist Kate Belgrave talking to striking JC workers is very illuminating.

Staff: Universal Credit claimants go without money because support centres are woefully understaffed #UniversalCreditStrike

For example, this on managing the caseload - It’s managed per team – so, say, if someone rings up with [from] their phone number, then our system then routes them to their case manager [at the centre] but if you’re managing 800 claims like some of us are, then – yeah.

“It is the workload,” another striker said. “At one point, there were 16 people on long-term sick…”

And this on the national UC helpline - national telephony [the Universal Credit helpline] – they’re not trained in anything…

They’re not trained at all really – any queries they get, they just get emailed to us…that defeats the purpose of what national telephony is for, really.