16 May 2003
Westminster City Council this week found itself embroiled in a new row over the relocation of its staff and services under outsourcing contracts, when it emerged that the London borough's housing benefit division will be shifted to a call centre in Blackburn.
The Conservative-controlled borough claims that the 230-mile relocation of the 50-person division, outsourced to Capita Business Services, has been forced upon it by 'structural' recruitment and retention problems in London.
But unions claimed the council and Capita were 'penny-pinching' and forcing staff in the capital into redundancy by proposing a move so far away.
Capita already manages the staff involved: they were relocated from Westminster to offices owned by nearby Lambeth under a contract agreed in 1998. Initially, Westminster's staff worked alongside staff who had been transferred to Capita from the London Borough of Lambeth.
But Capita has since lost its contract to run Lambeth's housing benefit division and unions claim the council now wants its office space back, leaving the Westminster staff without a long-term office in the capital.
Unison representatives at Westminster claimed that rather than move to an expensive site in London, Capita has 'chosen the cheap and cheerful option' of relocating jobs to Blackburn, where the company already has offices and where staff are paid around £3,000 per year less.
Rahul Patel, Unison branch secretary at Westminster, said: 'Capita knows only too well that staff in London will not want to transfer to Blackburn, so it is effectively making them redundant and saving the relocation costs. This smacks of penny-pinching and profiteering.'
Capita employs other Westminster housing benefit staff in Kent, where some of the Lambeth-based workforce have been offered posts. The company claimed that the move from Lambeth would provide Westminster with the opportunity to fill 'troublesome' vacant posts that have slowed benefit payments.
Last year, Westminster came under fire for failing to protect the terms and conditions offered to staff under a separate £1bn outsourcing contract, which could also result in staff being relocated outside the borough.
A spokesman for the council said: 'This is a completely different situation and is not at all about cost-savings. This is about Capita and Westminster working together to improve housing benefit services for the borough's residents.'
PFmay2003
