Telford Jobcentre staff in 24-hour strike

Hundreds of Jobcentre Plus staff in Telford are to stage a 24-hour strike in an escalating row over working conditions and a "target driven culture", it was announced today.

More than 250 members of the Public and Commercial Services union based at Telford's call centre at New Town House, in the town centre, will walk out on April 18 after accusing management of showing "little willingness" to resolve the dispute.

The drop-in centre in Telford and Shrewsbury will not be affected as only call centre staff will be striking.

A spokesman for PCS said there were 255 members in Telford, out of the centre's 340 workforce.

The Telford workers will be joined by thousands of other Jobcentre Plus call centre staff from across the country for the walk out.

In a ballot of the union's 7,000 members, 70 per cent of those who took part voted for strike action, with a turnout of members of 43 per cent.

The action follows a two-day strike in January by more than 2,000 workers in Jobcentre Plus's seven newest contact centres who complained of being forcibly moved from processing benefit claims to handling inquiries by phone.

The union said it wanted to improve the levels of customer service in call centres, end a target driven culture, particularly by changing the way "unrealistic" average call times are used, and introduce ­proper flexible working arrangements.

Jane Aitchison, the union's Department for Work and Pensions group president, said: "We are being prevented from providing a good quality service to the public because of unnecessary and unrealistic call centre targets."