DWP workers threatened by office relocation

By a DWP PCS member

PCS members in the DWP offices in Caerphilly, Gabalfa, Cwmbran, Merthyr, Newport and Tonypandy have had carry on delivering services to the public despite having the threat of the relocation of their work hanging over them for the past four years. DWP management at the height of the pandemic when workloads are soaring has decided to announce the dates these offices will close.

PCS has consistently warned that these moves threaten jobs and adversely impact large numbers of members with extremely long or impossible journeys to get to the new building in the Treforest Industrial Estate. Crucially these plans also impact on vital jobs being based in the local communities across South Wales.  Whilst the Treforest site is within the valleys taskforce area so are many of the jobs that are being threatened,

PCS was already demanding that 40,000 extra staff were needed in DWP before the pandemic.  Now with the economic devastation caused by the pandemic far more workers will be needed in the DWP to deliver vital public services to support our communities.

The strong PCS campaigning by members in Porth had secured the better solution for the Porth Debt Centre members to remain working in the Rhondda. They were threatened with an impossible interim relocation to Caerphilly and to be relocated to empty floors in Tonypandy office which the landlord had failed to let since benefits staff had been moved out of the site. These workers are now included in the plans to centralise everything in Treforest

Disgracefully DWP think they can do all the work to support staff and deal with all the issues thrown up by the relocation for the two first offices Merthyr and Gabalfa in just the next few months. Whilst we are still dealing with all the impact and difficulties of working through lockdown

Today’s announcement in the midst of the global pandemic

DWP despite the current circumstances took the decision to press ahead and announce the dates they plan to move back of house staff from the feeder sites to Treforest as below:

Tranche 1

• Merthyr Tydfil, Tŷ Bethesda – July 2021
• Cardiff, Gabalfa – from September 2021

Tranche 2 by March 2022

• Caerphilly, Crown Buildings; and Tonypandy Thistle House

Tranche 3 by March 2023

• Cwmbran, Glyndwr House; and Newport Sovereign House

PCS made a very clear argument about how inappropriate it was to plough ahead with this announcement and the planned timescale today. We have highlighted: –

• The extensive restrictions that have been in place in South East Wales for months now with the soaring Covid-19 cases.  Our members are already working flat out to deliver vital public services under the enormous workload and personal pressures as a result of this pandemic.  The level of anxiety of everyone was already at high levels and this announcement can only increase the anxiety and be disruptive to the work that we do. This is exacerbated by the fact that the announcement has to be delivered virtually on Teams. When the focus of the department is on delivering payments and support to the public, the work involved in supporting all our members through a stressful relocation exercise and find solutions can only damage delivery of services.
• The global pandemic has substantially changed the long-term economic situation which has a direct impact on the services that DWP delivers and the staffing numbers needed to deliver this.
• The structural weaknesses of locating large numbers of staff in huge sites which have been exposed during the pandemic and significant impact of disruption that can occur with all the staff concentrated in a single site.  PCS also raised specific concerns from the outset about the site location being on a flood plain and this was graphically illustrated by the major flooding of the Treforest Industrial Estate last year.

PCS Campaign Activity

PCS continues to oppose the wholescale moves of our members to Treforest. At a time when the department is having to acquire further workplaces to house more staff to deliver more services to the public, we believe it is short-sighted to lose the space for DWP staff to work in these six local communities. We will continue to campaign against any potential for members to lose their jobs and on the widescale detrimental and discriminatory impact of the plans on large sections of our members, which we do not believe have been properly addressed.