BBC News Online: UK

Benefits staff vote on strike action

Open plan working is not safe says the PCS union

They are angry about government plans to re-locate them in new-look offices without glass security screens.

For more than a week 2,300 staff have been on an indefinite strike at 57 offices across the UK.

Their colleagues are expected to vote for a prolonged campaign of strikes on selected days, which could leave millions of claimants without money by Christmas.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said members were being balloted because of "very real fears" they could be put at risk.

Mark Sewotka, of the PCS, told BBC News: "We are prepared to escalate this dispute because what is at stake here is civil servants doing a very difficult job."

The union's Jim Hanson told BBC News Online the absence of security screens at the planned Jobcentre Plus offices, which will provide a one-stop service for the jobless and benefit claimants, "leaves people open to the risk of assault".

"People feel very strongly about the issue," he added.

But Karen Gamester, who manages an unscreened Jobcentre in Winchester, told BBC News: "The relationship we build up with customers is better because we are working face-to-face and there is no barrier between you."

Last year the number of assaults and threats against the union's members doubled to more than 5,000.

Of those 163 were physical attacks.

And on Monday a security guard at an unscreened London office was stabbed.

Mr Hanson said any disruption the dispute caused claimants was "regrettable".

"Our argument is not with the claimants, it is with the management," he concluded.