WITH the privatisation of the government file store in Nelson, the records of people claiming attendance allowance, disability living allowance, mobility allowance, pensions and war pensions, including their personal details, bank and addresses etc, are going to be handed over and put up for auction to the private sector.

Workers in the civil service, in our case the Department of Works and Pensions, are now allowed to bid for our own jobs. Our union rights are being curtailed so that it makes it harder for us to fight against these measures.

Out of the five companies that are bidding for the work, at least three have poor performance records and two are also foreign -- Iron Mountain (American, 13 weeks behind on claim processing), Serco (French, prison services supplier), Capita (again 13 weeks behind), TNT (contracted to deliver 95 per cent of work within 24 hours, but what about the five per cent?) and Pickfords.

The service levels that the civil service provides are not going to be maintained. They are going to be worsened.

We wish people unfortunate enough to have to rely on these benefits the best of luck in the future. The poor service that has hit the headlines recently has been down to the civil service having to work with the private sector. This is profit instead of service.

MARK PAIN, Public and Commercial Services Union representative, Nelson filestore (Archives).