Calling for a legal action movement against Department for Want and Poverty in the UK in the wake of the stunt strikes staged by the PCS trade union

Calling for a legal action movement against Department for Want and Poverty in the UK in the wake of the stunt strikes staged by the PCS trade union



None of your [COVENTRY local paper web site COVENTRY TELEGRAPH] quotations is relating a single case of want, hunger, famine or starvation either in Coventry or in any other part of the UK as a known consequence of the Department for Want and Poverty [DWP] policy. Nor is there any hint in your report of any organised action within the existing UK Laws and the UK’s constitutional obligations in relation to the Treaty of Rome. Does the UK have a statute that governs the rights of people in low or no income to have a basic level of income? If the answer is yes, does the PCS union have a trac record of pushing for legal challenges? How many PCS members have had complaints about THEIR behaviour towards the claimants? What about the little-mentioned thing called democratic audit? Has the local Council in your area been pushed typo provide the transparent account of how IT has been implementing the de facto targeting of people in low and no income since even before the CONDEM regime took power at the UK centre? There are quite a few activities that can still be done within the [admittedly insufficiently democratic] legal framework. So is the TUC going to support legal and court challenges to the DWP? Is the TUC and its affiliated unions eg the PCS union going to join the ordinary claimants ands mobilise UK wide court actions against the DWP making starvation an acceptable thing in the country?






Jobcentre Plus staff strike in Coventry
by Tina Junday
Apr 19 2011
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A TOTAL of 250 staff staged a walkout yesterday in a row over working conditions at a job centre in Coventry.

The strike action, at the Jobcentre Plus contact centre, Cofa Court, follows a dispute about inflexible working hours and a 16-minute time limit on calls.

It was part of a one-day strike with picket lines mounted at 37 centres across the country.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) in Coventry say they are being subjected to a “harsh management regime.”

Carole Dunne, aged 52, a customer services adviser, was among about 20 staff who picketed outside the Cheylesmore centre yesterday.

She said: “Our shifts are dictated by a computer system and everyone is being monitored, even our toilet breaks – it’s pushing people too far.

“Staff are being reprimanded for being as little as a minute late.

"We’re also being set targets that are unrealistic and we have no way of meeting them.

“Some of our calls are complex and require more time.

"Customers have been cut off because we can’t exceed that time limit and it’s caused anger with the public.”

John Ainslie, aged 29, a first contact officer, said he deals with about 30 calls each day about council and housing benefit claims.

“They’re focusing on call times but not on why people are calling in the first place.

"They’re only interested in targets and it winds me up that we can’t give people the best service possible.

"Customers end up calling back again anyway or we arrange call backs until they can get their claim through.”

Matt Price, PCS Coventry and Warwickshire branch secretary, said: “Management are so fixated with these call limits, it has led to some staff having to put the phone down in the middle of a conversation.

"It’s micro management gone mad – staff are under pressure already and now managers are not giving them enough time with their customers.”

A DWP spokeswoman said there was minor disruption to the service and they were “disappointed” with the decision to take strike action.

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damagingwantandpoverty

7:52 PM on April 19, 2011
None of your quotations is relating a single case of want, hunger, famine or starvation either in Coventry or in any other part of the UK as a known consequence of the Department for Want and Poverty [DWP] policy. Nor is there any hint in your report of any organised action within the existing UK Laws and the UK’s constitutional obligations in relation to the Treaty of Rome. Does the UK have a statute that governs the rights of people in low or no income to have a basic level of income? If the answer is yes, does the PCS union have a trac record of pushing for legal challenges? How many PCS members have had complaints about THEIR behaviour towards the claimants? What about the little-mentioned thing called democratic audit? Has the local Council in your area been pushed typo provide the transparent account of how IT has been implementing the de facto targeting of people in low and no income since even before the CONDEM regime took power at the UK centre? There are quite a few activities that can still be done within the [admittedly insufficiently democratic] legal framework. So is the TUC going to support legal and court challenges to the DWP? Is the TUC and its affiliated unions eg the PCS union going to join the ordinary claimants ands mobilise UK wide court actions against the DWP making starvation an acceptable thing in the country?
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