Hundreds of staff employed at the Department of Work and Pensions in Glasgow have walked out in a dispute over flexible working.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) set up a picket line on Port Dundas Road when the strike began this morning.

More than 1000 union members in Glasgow and a further 500 in Bolton were balloted over new working conditions, including predetermined start and finish times and restrictions on flexible working.

The majority of workers in Glasgow and Bolton are tasked with rolling out the government's flagship social security programme, Universal Credit.

Almost 85% backed plans for a two-day walk out and a spokesman for the Glasgow branch said fewer than 100 staff were at their desks in Glasgow today.

“We’ve got about 1000 members in Glasgow Northgate,” he said. “Of them, about 750 work in Universal Credit.

“Everybody has been asked to walk out today and we’ve been very well supported. You’d be lucky if there are 100 people in there. That reflects the strength of feeling members have.”

The spokesman for the Glasgow branch said there has been a “gradual erosion of terms and conditions”.

He said: “Staff now have to schedule three weeks in advance their start and finish times. If that doesn’t suit the management the staff are told the hours we need to work. For years we had a flexible working scheme and it’s something that staff value.

“This action is about dignity and about being trusted to manage our work and be conscientious about our work. The regime that they’re introducing is oppressive. If you want to go to the toilet you have to log in and out of the system. On the back of other things they’re doing, this is the final straw.”

SNP MP Angela Crawley has written to the Secretary of State after she was contacted by constituents about the dispute.

She said “The Secretary of State needs to take action and speak to relevant officials. It is unreasonable to impose even greater burdens on hard-pressed staff critical to the delivery of Universal Credit; and it is in no-one’s interest for an industrial dispute to develop.”

DWP management who stood behind the picket line in Glasgow declined to comment but a DWP spokesman said: “Only a small minority of universal credit workers will be taking part in strike action. The fact is staff are already administering universal credit in almost 50 per cent of Jobcentres, and feedback shows they feel supported and confident in delivering this major welfare reform.”