Benefit office staff walk out

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MORE THAN 200 staff at Benefit offices in Northwest London staged a walkout last week to protest at hefty staff cuts, abysmal working conditions and a heavier workload arising from the increase in the unemployment register.

The strike succeeded in closing down more than half the unemployment benefit offices 1n North-west London and was also supported by several job centres.

This action comes at a time when the Tories are also planning to introduce ethnic monitoring, availability testing and taxation of: benefits-all of which is being opposed by the main Cow A PARTICULARLY vicious victimisation has taken place in BL's Cowley Assembly Plant. A worker on the Honda Acclaim track has been sacked for handing out copies of a Leyland Action Committee leaflet to fellow it kers on the track.

'he worker, Dennis Kilauritt, who has been two years in the plant, took some copies of the leaflet, which advertised a local meeting of the LAC, when he went in on the night shift. He gave them to several of his mates well before the shift started at eight o'clock.

At ten past six the follwing morning he was immoned to the superintendent's office and sacked Since then, four more stages of BL's . disciplinary procedure have been operated. Each time management's line has been harder than before.

It has been a clear political victimisation from the start, showing the thinking civil service unions, the CPSA and the SCPS.

Ethnic monitoring would involve claimants being asked about their country of origin, immigration status and their race.

The Department ot Employment insists that it is all nothing to worry about, that they have been doing the same thing for years at Job Centres and it is merely a way of compiling statistics on black employment.

However, the scope of the new questionnaire has been expanded and will include all black/foreign claimants, including peopie born here and would also allow the monitoring process to be directly tied in with signing on, giving potential leverage to racist arguments.

The availability testing would also involve claimants being asked to fill detailed questionnaires and basically make it harder to claim benefit.

This would particularly affect part time workers and those with dependents or children-mainly women.

The move to voluntary registration is also expected to cause job losses in the Manpower Services Commission. Staff are now preparing to stage another all-London strike on Tuesday January 26 to protest about the worsening conditions and possibility of further cuts.

It is essential now to spread this type of action to other UBOs and Job