Security staff at Wigan Job Centres begin week-long strike

The guards - employed by private outsourcing giant G4S - were walking walk out until Saturday July 6 across the regions.

The GMB union representing them say the workers do a difficult, dangerous job, with its research showing more than 80 per cent regularly suffer abuse, including being savaged in the neck by dogs, punched, attacked with screwdrivers and customers behaving “like wild animals.”

In total, 90 per cent of the guards are now paid just the minimum wage.

Meanwhile the union says the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has paid £211m to G4s since December 2022, despite staff costs being just £161m during the same period: a difference of £50m.

There are local Job Centre Plus premises on King Street, Wigan; Windermere Road, Leigh and Gerard Street, Ashton-in-Makerfield.

During previous strikes, the Wigan centre has sometimes been forced to close and the Leigh one only opening on one floor.

ACAS is attempting to arrange talks to settle the dispute, but the DWP is refusing to participate.

Eamon O’Hearn, GMB National Officer, said: “It’s no rocket science – if the DWP and G4S want to end this dispute, make sure these guards are paid enough to live on.

“G4S has been handed millions by the Government, yet our members can barely afford to feed their families.

“The work they do is hard; they are attacked with alarming regularity just for doing their job.

“The least they expect is to be paid a proper wage.”

During a previous walk-out two dozen job centres around the country closed completely and 100 were partially closed.