Proposed Action in North-West Contact Centres

Proposed Action in North-West Contact Centres
Action has been proposed by the North West Regional Committee to the Group Executive to confront the deteriorating conditions in North-West DWP Contact centres.

The DWP North West Regional Committee met today and unanimously agreed the following:

The following branches in the North West wish to put in a submission for industrial action in their contact centres: East Lancashire, West Lancashire, North Merseyside, Manchester and Salford, Liverpool, Wigan Area, Stockport and Tame Valley.

We want to ballot all members who work for Network Services on the following sites: Blackburn CC, Blackpool CC, Bootle CC, Chorlton CC, Garston CC, Makerfield CC, Stockport CC and Lancaster. We want the question on the ballot paper to be "are you prepared to take strike action?"

We want to take discontinuous strike action until the following demands are met.

1. An agreement that there will be no further use of agency workers and the agency workers at Makerfield will be offered permanent jobs.

2. An agreement that management will adhere to the leave arrangements contained in the Contact Centre Agreement.

3. An agreement that all staff will have free access to the flexibility agreed in the Contact Centre Agreement.

4. An agreement that there will be guaranteed job security for all remaining AAs.

The Group Secretary has informed us that the Group Exec has agreed principle to support this action on completion of the formal submission process.

We will keep members and branches informed of all future developments.

For more information please contact the Regional Secretary: annettepwright@hotmail.co.uk