Under pressure from government ministers Jobcentre Plus have today announced plans to close 17 Benefit Centres (BC) and 5 Contact Centres (CC).
We have told the Jobcentre Plus Chief Executive that none of the closures are justified. This move is primarily driven by the government’s obsession with making unnecessary cuts in public spending with no regard for the needs of Jobcentre Plus customers. Disgracefully 14 of the offices earmarked for closure today are in areas which Jobcentre Plus accept have higher than average unemployment. PCS believes our offices need to be staffed up, not closed to deal with the sharp rises in unemployment now likely as a result of government spending cuts.
The offices named for closure are: Arbroath BC, Ayr BC, Broadstairs BC, Caerphilly CC, Cannock BC, Carlisle BC, Castleford BC, Chester BC, Clydebank CC, Exeter BC, Grimsby Europarc CC, Halifax BC, Hartlepool BC, Huyton BC, Lincoln BC, Liverpool John Moores CC, Luton BC, Mansfield BC, Preston CC, Sutton in Ashfield BC, Totton BC, Yeovil BC.
This amounts to a massive attack on Jobcentre Plus’ network of BCs and CCs. The closure of these 22 sites means the closure of 20% of all of Jobcentre Plus’ BCs and CCs. The jobs of the 2,400 staff who work in these offices are now clearly at risk. Management say they will try and make an offer of redeployment to another JCP office to all of the staff in the 22 offices. However they admit that these offers of redeployment may not be within the mobility of all of the staff affected.
Management’s intention is to close these offices within the next 12 months though there is no fixed date for any closure. The only exception to this is in respect of Carlisle BC and Hartlepool BC. Under pressure from PCS to halt all the closures management agreed to defer the proposed closure of these offices to 2012-13.
Campaign Plans
By the time you read this the PCS Group Executive Committee will have put a motion condemning this announcement to the Annual Delegate Conference of the DWP Group of the Union and will have held a meeting at Conference of delegates from the union branches containing the 22 sites to discuss campaigning to keep our offices open.
Arrangements have already been made to produce campaign materials including letters to MPs and press releases. A press release condemning this announcement has been issued and can be accessed through the PCS website.
Criteria for closures
Management have used a number of factors for selecting which offices they want to close. The factors used are;
- Cost of the premises (e.g. Rent, etc)
- Performance of the site, using their performance league tables of every BC and CC.
- The number of seats on each site (Generally sites with fewer than 200 seats have been selected to close)
- The ease with which staff at the site can be redeployed into other offices
- The impact on the local economy, including equality impacts and the rate of unemployment in the local economy.
However the way that these factors have been applied is not consistent. For example in some cases offices with low costs, or with as record of high performance, or with more than 200 seats have still been chosen for closure. This exercise has exposed as a sham management’s propaganda that if staff at an office work hard and perform well then their offices will be safe from closure.
Re-Deployment Plans
Management intend to redeploy as many of the staff as possible into other JCP offices. Re-deployment options to other parts of DWP and other Government Departments will also be explored. However in certain sites the prospects of redeployment are very poor. Their intention is to consider offering voluntary exits in some locations at a later stage to those that they have been unable to re-deploy.
One to One Meetings
Management will be holding a 1 to 1 exercise with everyone on the 22 sites. The main purpose of this will be to understand what possibilities, and also what difficulties, there may be for redeploying staff. It is very important that members use this as an opportunity to put on record any factors that may impact on their mobility such as child care or health issues.
Compulsory redundancies?
Clearly an announcement like this makes the possibility of compulsory redundancies a very real threat to some of our members. It is an absolute priority for PCS that there should be no compulsory redundancies as a result of this announcement and we will do everything possible to ensure this does not happen. Jobcentre Plus has not given a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies. However they have committed themselves to take all possible steps to avoid redundancies and PCS will ensure that we hold them to this commitment. No one can be made redundant without first being offered a voluntary exit scheme.
Non-Jobcentre Plus members
There are a number of members on some of these sites who are not employed by Jobcentre Plus (E.g. Corporate Centre/PDCS/CMEC staff and also Trillium and BBW staff.) They will also be directly affected by this announcement. PCS will be contacting their management to ensure that they receive the same level of support and help as JCP staff.
Job Centres
Some of the sites share a building with a Job Centre. Job Centres that share a building with one of the offices due to close are not affected by this announcement and will not close as a result. Management are currently working separately on their plans for the future Job Centre network and expect to provide details of this within the next few weeks.
Conclusion
PCS is committed to fighting office closures, will campaign to keep all our offices open and will be encouraging members to get involved in their campaign locally. At the same time PCS will defend the interests of all members affected by this announcement and do everything possible to support them.
