Civil servants working in Jobcentres and Social Security offices across London have signalled their willingness to take on the government over job cuts with 71per cent of Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) members having voted for
Even before the ballot result was announced, David Blunkett, the Minister of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) offered to hold talks with the union. The PCS has stated strike action will commence in October if the government fails to make concessions.
This is not simply a civil service dispute, but is also a battle for the future of the welfare system as a whole.
The government has declared that it wants to axe 100,000 civil servants, including 40,000 workers in the DWP, and is also seeking to relocate thousands ot jobs out of London.
Already this has resulted in the closure of dozens of DWP offices in the capital with frontline services in the remaining offices having been decimated to the point where clients rarely see Blair would rather cut benefits to the sick and force people into the lowest paid jobs than to provide people the assistance to make their career ambitions a reality. an adviser and the unemployed are 'fast signed' every fortnight.
The majority of London benefit claims are now processed outside of the capital with the unemployed and sick being forced to ning alstant call centres to DooK new claims appointments and make benefit enquiries. These call centres are unable to deal with the volume of calls and claimants are left hanging on the telephone for hours (often at their own expense).
The CMS2 computer system used by call centres for new claims is making matters worse and management are considering pulling the plug on this costly and failing IT system.
If claimants can book a new claims appointment, they may be given a date weeks in advance in order to be able to see an adviser due to statting shortages in local offices. After the appointment, it may take weeks for forms to be processed.
It is no wonder that the number of incidents of abuse and assault suffered by DWP workers in London this year have doubled, as claimants wait weeks, and sometimes months, for money.
Despite the evidence that the public service is on the verge of collapse, New Labour wishes to press ahead with a further 1,000 job cuts from the capital's 12,000 DWP workers by April 2006. Blair's changes are making it less likely that the capital's claimants will find work.
New Labour is even cutting Jobcentre posts in East London which will result in the DWP being able to provide little help to the local unemployed seeking Olympics opportunities. The DWP is also axing training courses, including language courses, to claimants as the funding has been cut.
At the Labour Party Conference, jobseeker Gordon Brown claimed that Britain has full employment, however there are more than a million people claiming Jobseekers Allowance and unemployment has been rising for the last eight months. There are 2.7 million people claiming either incapacity benefit or severe disablement allowance.
Job cuts in the DWP demonstrate that New Labour is not serious about providing real support through Jobcentres tor the unemployed.
Blair would rather cut benefits to the sick and force people into the lowest paid jobs than to provide people the assistance to make their career ambitions a reality,
The DWP employs a large number of women and ethnic minority staff in the lower grades where the cuts are being made.
The PCS has demanded Race Impact Assessments to determine whether the government is breaking the law by making cuts in areas where there are large numbers of ethnic minority workers.
In addition, the union has argued that there is the need for a multilingual call centre in London that clients who speak in English as a second language can ring for help with their claims.
The PCS is demanding management give London workers a no compulsory redundancy guarantee. However the PCS Regional Committee believes it should not be in the business of helping management to cut jobs with the least amount of pain. It believes there is no case for job losses and has submitted a staffing claim for London much work to do but there will be disappointment and anger at the renewed attacks. SR: A common theme in the media coverage is that public sector workers receive more than their fair share of pension provision and should consider themselves lucky to get anything given that most private employees have no coverage whatsoever. How would you answer this argument?
GB: We need to make clear that we are fighting both to defend our existing schemes and to extend pension rights for workers generally.
Pension provision in Britain today accounts for around 5 per cent of GDP, which is less than half the average across the whole of Western Europe.
The media has also peddled a lot of misconceptions about pension levels for local government workers. The average annual pension across local government is substantially below 4,000 pounds.
Strangely enough, while we read of our privileged position, even in liberal papers like the Guardian, little mention is made demanding more staff not less.
The government would like to cut tens of thousands of DWP jobs and then privatise the service. Recently the PCS discovered secret plans by the government to privatise the bulk of Jobcentre work. This is in direct contrast to New Labour's promise during the election that they would not privatise Jobcentre Plus.
There is an urgent need for the PCS to have a political fund to increase its campaigning against this government and hopefully members will use the forthcoming ballot to vote in favour of such a fund.
Additionally, there is a need for other PCS members to support workers in the capital.
The union held a national strike on November 5 last year against job cuts, but has failed to build on it. Hopefully the London dispute will act as a catalyst for further national action.
If the government can get away with huge job cuts followed by privatisation in the largest government department, the DWP, no worker has a safe job in the public sector. This is a crucial struggle for claimants and all public sector workers. of the pension scheme for MPs, the pension bonanza for top executives or the pension related tax relief for the most affluent that could send another inflationary wave through the housing SR: What events and actions can trade unionists and others get involved in to help secure pension rights for public and private sector employees?
GB: In the very near future, especially in the public sector, we need to be forming joint committees at a local and regional level to develop the possibilities for coordinated strike action.
We also need to be making links with the National Pensioners Convention and similar campaigns fighting for improvements in the existing state pension.
Both before and during any strike action, we need to be taking the arguments to the broader public, rebutting lies about existing public sector schemes, but also advancing arguments as to how society could readily afford to ensure a decent, secure retirement for all workers long before they turn 65.