The following has been supplied by PCS DWP Group:
DWP have today announced the closure of two more large offices. One is the Lawnswood site in Leeds, the other is Newgate House in Rochdale.
Lawnswood is primarily a Disability Living Allowance site, with some Fraud staff. Newgate House is primarily a Fraud site but also has small teams working on a variety of different DWP areas of work. Management have also announced the start of a public consultation process for the move of the Medical Examination centre from Lawnswood to Quarry House.
248 staff work at Lawnswood and 119 work at Newgate House.
No Consultation
PCS were not consulted about these specific announcements in advance.
Management have told us that they are looking at rationalising the DWP estate in order to save money. But in this case they have proceeded to make an announcement prior to consulting with PCS about the rationale for closing these two sites. This is clearly unacceptable and PCS has already made this clear to senior management.
In both cases management say that there is space to accommodate all the staff from these two offices.
This would mean transferring the staff from Lawnswood into Quarry House and
moving the staff from Newgate House into neighbouring DWP offices. This may well be an acceptable arrangement for some of the members affected.
Members’ Concerns
However we are concerned that there will be other members for whom such a transfer would bring major difficulties and considerably longer journeys to work. It is unclear if a change in location would mean a change in duties. Some members may have specific individual circumstances that would make a transfer very difficult and for others management’s proposals will be outwith DWP mobility rules and therefore create redeployment problems. PCS is of course opposed to an office closure where such circumstances apply.
Wider threat to jobs
Members will be aware that in DWP there are members who are currently under notice of compulsory redundancy following the office closures that were announced back in 2010. Further office closures only serves to increase the risk of more redundancies and illustrates the importance of supporting PCS’ campaign against compulsory redundancies.
This announcement followed one earlier this week of an offer of Voluntary Exits targeted at AA’s and HEO’s in certain locations, where restructuring and other changes has led to a likelihood of surpluses being declared in these grades. This again shows the threat to members’ jobs of management’s remorseless agenda of staff cuts and office closures. The staff and sites affected by this Voluntary Exit scheme have been informed.
