Message of Support from South Yorkshire School Students

PDF of Letter of Support

Your fight is our fight

Support workers on strike!

We, the SYSAC extend our solidarity and support to all striking members of PCS and workers in Sheffield Contact Centre. Call centres are generally recognised as among the worst places to work with regards to terms and conditions of employment, and we know that many of you were forced to work in the Contact Centre against your will, often after many years of experience elsewhere in the Civil Service.

We also know that many of you have only ever worked there, and experience a shadow of the terms and conditions on offer to your colleagues elsewhere in the DWP. We give our support to all Contact Centre workers in Jobcentre Plus, and like you, will not accept such terrible working conditions for public sector staff.

As young people it is particularly important for us to support you and work with you in your campaign – call centres are invariably staffed by younger people, who suffer from terrible exploitation. Through a successful campaign you could set a precedent for other call centres in the UK that will improve these working conditions.

Furthermore, due to increasing unemployment, it becomes more and more likely that young people like us will end up using the Jobcentre Plus services as youth unemployment rises to levels now around 1 million. It is absolutely vital then, that those services which we have are staffed properly, by workers who are treated well and have good conditions.

It is our brothers and sisters, parents and friends, who staff the Jobcentre Plus offices. We support your fight for flexible working, ‘family friendly’ policies, a right to work without target-driven working or an intimidating monitoring system. We support you because we are the public sector employees of the future, and because we support all workers in struggle.

Your fight is our fight – solidarity!

SYSAC – South Yorkshire schools against the cuts