Life in a Department for Work and Pensions call centre, where employees are on a 48-hour strike, is like being in a Victorian workhouse. Staff are essentially chained to their desks, monitored for every minute of the day.

Our priority should be helping people find work and providing a good service to the thousands of vulnerable customers we deal with: pensioners, disabled people, those living in poverty. Instead we have approximately five minutes to deal with each customer; we use outdated systems that are not fit for purpose and essentially we can't do anything to help callers.

If someone rings for a payment, we are forced to contact an office in another part of the UK and the customer can end up phoning five or six times to get a simple payment issued. At this point a senior manager in the call centre would have to get involved, even though staff who take the calls know how to issue payments. We are not allowed to do it because this will affect our call handling times.

Jobcentre Plus, part of DWP, has forcibly transferred 3,500 staff from working on processing benefit claims to handling enquiries by phone in its seven newest call centres. I am one of around 2,400 workers who was on strike yesterday and again today against the oppressive working conditions in these offices.

It affects every aspect of our jobs. Simple things, such as forms, are not sent out for fear of going over the targets, so we send a message to the already overworked and understaffed processing offices. For many of the people we deal with who are living on the breadline, this is simply not good enough.

We have the skills and experience to help customers but are not permitted to use them; we are purely an answering machine service. The target culture can drive some odd behaviour, such as cutting customers off, fobbing them off or even winding them up so they end the call. Some people take shortcuts when dealing with queries; this could result in a massive underpayment or overpayment.

If we fail to hit the targets or have more than eight days off sick in a year, we are subject to harsh penalties and face the sack. More than 20% of the contact centre workforce has left since April 2010, and this is due to burnout or exhaustion through stress. Mental health-related absences have tripled and morale is at an all-time low.

We have 19 minutes a day to use for toilet, refreshment and other breaks. Anything over this and you will be classed as "non adherent", which could lead to further penalties.

The DWP claims to be an equal opportunities employer, but there are people who, through no fault of their own, cannot do telephony work and are facing the sack. They have given years of service to DWP and they're being treated like an old toy that no longer works being thrown in the skip.

Our managers could easily resolve this dispute by bringing back processing and allowing us to use our skills to help our customers. We want respect for them and for ourselves.

• William Davies is a pseudonym