BENEFITS workers are planning to strike on the day the new Job Seekers Allowance in protest against safety conditions.

The Civil and Public Services Association believes their members will be at risk because of the opposition and ill feeling surrounding the new benefit.

The CPSA has called a strike for Monday and Tuesday with the aim of causing maximum disruption when the JSA is officially launched.

The allowance will replace Unemployment Benefit and Income Support and opponents claim claimants stand to lose up to £75 a week.

Union officials are campaigning for better security for staff at Job Centres and are opposed to open-plan offices.

The CPSA has already staged several one-day strikes and hundreds of staff across East Lancashire are expected to back the union. And the union has pointed to an increase in violence from claimants in recent years including attacks with weapons.

A spokesman said: "The union believes that management's insistence that benefit workers administer the JSA from unscreened Job Centres will lead to an increase in abuse and violence.

"Management have admitted that the much harsher benefit rules associated with the JSA will increase the risk of serious assaults on our members yet still refuse to accept that screens are a necessary safeguard."

The spokesperson added: "We have spent nearly two years trying to resolve this situation by talks but management refuse to listen.

"All we are asking for is the right to work in safe, secure offices. Perhaps if management had to face the same risks we do, they would take our concerns a little more seriously."

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