Three quarters of the staff at Coventry’s big Jobcentre Plus call centre are to strike in a row over working conditions.
The Public and Commercial Services Union say over 30 sites and thousands people will take part in the walk out on April 18th.
Coventry’s Cofa Court base at Cheylesmore is the biggest in the West Midlands.
The action follows a two-day strike in January at 7 contact centres.
The union says it wants to improve levels of customer service in the call centres and end a culture of targets where “unrealistic” average call times are being set.
A ballot of 7,000 members saw 70 per cent of them vote for a walk-out – but the turn-out was just 43 per cent.
A Department for Work and Pension spokesman said: “We are disappointed that despite three-quarters of staff across the centres not voting to strike, the PCS has decided to take industrial action.
“The contact centre staff at DWP have good terms of employment including generous holidays, and have a good amount of flexibility. But we have to ensure that our service is available when our customers, who include some of the most vulnerable people in the country, need us.”
Please see also this post for an example of the kind of targets staff are now expected to meet:
Jobcentres 'tricking' people out of benefits to cut costs, says whistleblower
