The following details have been supplied
by PCS DWP Group:
Last
month DWP wrote to staff in DWP Visiting Booking centres telling them that
Cardiff visits would be transferred to Pensions and Glasgow visits would go to
Universal Credit.
In the space of a month DWP have now changed their mind on this. They have announced today that both Cardiff and Glasgow Visiting booking centres will become contact centres instead. All the staff will remain on their current sites and will transfer into Contact Centre Services around Autumn 2014.
DWP only informed PCS that they were going to make this announcement late yesterday afternoon despite previously promising that they would share their communications timings with us. We believe they have rushed into this and not allowed time for proper discussion and consultation.
It is clear that priorities are shifting within DWP on virtually a daily basis and it appears that they have little idea what they are doing. It is a completely unacceptable way to treat staff to tell them one month that they are moving to Universal Credit or Pensions only to come back a few weeks later and tell them to forget that and instead say they are moving to contact centre work. This is not workforce management, it is chaos.
Members will be aware of the difficulties there have been in contact centres and the long-running contact centre dispute that was created by the TPIP transfer announcement. While PCS was able to secure significant improvements in the contact centres through the agreement that ended the dispute, problems and concerns among members in CCS do remain.
PCS therefore warned management that they needed to handle any announcement of further transfers into contact centres very carefully, if they wanted to avoid more difficulties. Regrettably they have chosen instead to rush into making this announcement.
PCS will be pressing management for urgent discussions to clarify what this announcement means for our members in Glasgow and Cardiff visiting, what work they will be doing for contact centres and what impact it may have on their working conditions.
In the space of a month DWP have now changed their mind on this. They have announced today that both Cardiff and Glasgow Visiting booking centres will become contact centres instead. All the staff will remain on their current sites and will transfer into Contact Centre Services around Autumn 2014.
DWP only informed PCS that they were going to make this announcement late yesterday afternoon despite previously promising that they would share their communications timings with us. We believe they have rushed into this and not allowed time for proper discussion and consultation.
It is clear that priorities are shifting within DWP on virtually a daily basis and it appears that they have little idea what they are doing. It is a completely unacceptable way to treat staff to tell them one month that they are moving to Universal Credit or Pensions only to come back a few weeks later and tell them to forget that and instead say they are moving to contact centre work. This is not workforce management, it is chaos.
Members will be aware of the difficulties there have been in contact centres and the long-running contact centre dispute that was created by the TPIP transfer announcement. While PCS was able to secure significant improvements in the contact centres through the agreement that ended the dispute, problems and concerns among members in CCS do remain.
PCS therefore warned management that they needed to handle any announcement of further transfers into contact centres very carefully, if they wanted to avoid more difficulties. Regrettably they have chosen instead to rush into making this announcement.
PCS will be pressing management for urgent discussions to clarify what this announcement means for our members in Glasgow and Cardiff visiting, what work they will be doing for contact centres and what impact it may have on their working conditions.
