# A Rolling Festive Phone-in to Atos 'Healthcare'



## smokedout (Dec 9, 2011)

As part of the National Month of Festive Action Against Atos we are calling for a rolling mass telephone complaint to poverty pimps Atos in the run up to Christmas.
Beginning on Monday 12th December and running up until Christmas benefit claimants, disabled people and supporters will be ringing both local and national Atos Offices to complain about their obscene treatment of sick and disabled people.

*How To Get Involved*
We urgently need as many towns, cities, groups and individuals to commit to a morning or afternoon shift in the upcoming days and get as many people as possible to ring Atos and complain about their involvement in the Work Capability Assessment.

To maximise the protest we will aim to have as many groups as possible calling Atos at different times in the run up to Christmas.  We’ll maintain a list here and on facebook to try and help co-ordinate times/dates and see if we can keep the phonelines buzzing daily in the run up to Christmas.  Please contact us by leaving details in the comments on facebook or emailing us at: notowelfarecuts@yahoo.co.uk

If you aren’t part of a local group, or even if you are, support the other protests by calling Atos along with them.

Either ring your local Atos Offices, or their corporate headquarters, or why not both!  Atos’s main numbers (including a handy freephone number) are:
+44 (0)20 7830 4444 (Tel)
 +44 (o)20 7830 4233 (Tel)
 +44 (0)800 783 3040 (Freephone)
 +44 (0)20 7830 4445 (Fax)

Atos ‘Healthcare’ who run the Work Capability Assessment have a main number at: +44 (0) 113 230 9175

Whilst it’s well worth trying to speak to a manager or senior individual if possible please bear in mind most people taking calls will be low paid receptionist/admin staff so we call on people to be be business-like and non-confrontational.  Be aware that is an offence to make telephone calls which are threatening, indecent or offensive.  Keep it fluffy.  Why not sing them a carol?

Anyone who manages to get through to Atos CEO Keith Wilman will win the customary prize of a free Crisis Loan*

Some calls may be recorded for the purposes of taking the piss.

Brighton DPAC who will be phoning Atos on the mornings of Monday 12th and Monday 19th of December have produced a script/template which can be read out, or emailed/faxed to Atos.  Visit their fb event page (below) for details.

*Join in online!*
You can also contact Atos via email.  Their Head of PR can be reached at: caroline.crouch@atos.net and general enquiries can be sent to: ukwebenquiries@atos.ne.  Atos ‘Healthcare’ can be reached at: customer-relations@atoshealthcare.com or to ask for a job go to: jobs@sjbmedical.com

Atos have new facebook groups and pages springing up all the time.  Search for Atos on facebook to find them.  You can also tweet using the hashtags #atos, we’ll be monitoring twitter for any other hashtags Atos use.

*Action planned so far*
*
*
Monday 12th and Monday 19th December from 9am
Brighton DPAC:  For details visit: http://www.facebook.com/events/132910660153707/
Please organise and contact us to be added to the list!

If you are planning on braving the cold and holding a protest as part of the month of action please send details asap to: notowelfare@yahoo.co.uk or leave details in the comments.

The main facebook page for the Month of Action can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=122853381158514

Come to the Triton Square Christmas Party and Picnic  outside Atos’ Headquarters on December 16th from 2pm: http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wo...picnic-at-triton-square-friday-16th-december/

*actually we still can’t give out Crisis Loans as prizes.  The DWP are bastards like that.

_Atos are the French IT firm responsible for carrying out the government’s Work Capability Assessment which has led to tens of thousands of sick and disabled people being forced into poverty after being stripped of essential benefits.  Despite the process being dubbed unfit for purpose and an increasing number of suicides due to the stressful and vicious health testing regime, this form of assessment is to be extended to everyone on some form of disability or health related benefit._


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## Libertad (Dec 9, 2011)

Liking this a great deal.


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## smokedout (Dec 9, 2011)

get some folk together and arrange a slot to do it, it's all a bit last minute but doesn't take loads of people - perhaps we could do an urban phone in


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## BigTom (Dec 9, 2011)

I reckon an urban slot would be good.. I'd be up for making a phone call.


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## Delroy Booth (Dec 10, 2011)

I'm up for this


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## Jon-of-arc (Dec 10, 2011)

Ive got a nice silly complaint lined up,.if I can be assured that this wont block lines or delay payments for those claiming. Has this been considered?


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## AKA pseudonym (Dec 10, 2011)

sweet my friend......
now who is doing what when smoked thin.....


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## smokedout (Dec 10, 2011)

Jon-of-arc said:


> Ive got a nice silly complaint lined up,.if I can be assured that this wont block lines or delay payments for those claiming. Has this been considered?



atos don't deal with payments at all.  if you contact the main head office numbers they are actually nothing to do with benefits at all - atos are a vast IT company and these are the numbers for their london corporate headquarters

: +44 (0)20 7830 4444 (Tel)
 +44 (o)20 7830 4233 (Tel)
 +44 (0)800 783 3040 (Freephone)
 +44 (0)20 7830 4445 (Fax)


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## smokedout (Dec 10, 2011)




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## smokedout (Dec 10, 2011)

fb page - please share etc

http://www.facebook.com/events/281777128534663/


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## Voley (Dec 10, 2011)

smokedout said:


> Brighton DPAC who will be phoning Atos on the mornings of Monday 12th and Monday 19th of December have produced a script/template which can be read out, or emailed/faxed to Atos. Visit their fb event page (below) for details.


I'm not on fb. Could someone C&P it here please?


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## smokedout (Dec 10, 2011)

_Description_
As part of the Rolling Festive Phone-in to Atos 'Healthcare (See here: http://www.facebook.com/events/281777128534663/ )

 Brighton DPAC telephone and email blockade of Brighton ATOS Healthcare

 by Richard Connolly 
... 
 Mornings of Monday December 12 & Monday December 19. 

 Tel: 01273 728 535 – lines are open from 9am.


 Suggestion for call: 

 In my opinion I think we should bear in mind that we’ll be talking to a low-paid receptionist / admin worker - not an ATOS manager or assessor - and to be business-like and non-confrontational.

 Could keep it brief and state that as a disabled person with impairments (or ally) you utterly condemn ATOS healthcare’s treatment of disabled people and intend to organise against them as long as they receive hundreds of millions in government funding to do this.

 Alternatively, maybe state that you’re in receipt of disability benefits and gravely concerned at the working practices of ATOS and specifically the threat of a work capability assessment, of which you’ve heard alarming reports from associates who’ve had to endure them. You’re also concerned that your impairments, which has been diagnosed by a GP or specialist, will be disregarded and you’ll be forced into the Work Group and eventually onto Jobseekers Allowance, and that your health will seriously deteriorate as a result. Allies could state the above in solidarity with disabled people.

 Email: brightonmec@atoshealthcare.com

 Suggested email:

 Dear Madam / Sir 

 As you are well aware, Atos currently has a £100m a year contract with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to carry out examinations for disability benefits. We are outraged that Atos is profiting from denying those of us who are sick or disabled people the benefits we need to survive and maintain our level of health. 

 Since 1995, when medical assessments for incapacity benefit were privatised and taken out of public services, standards have steadily declined. But Atos has brought this to a new low. While none of the work tests deserve to be called a “medical” as they have no basis in patient welfare, since Atos started carrying out the ESA tests in 2008 there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people with severe illness and disability being assessed as fit for work and denied benefits. 

 Claimants rightly fear that most Atos assessors are uncaring and prejudiced – they work to targets which have nothing to do with patients’ individual health needs or with the realities of the job market which sick and disabled people are being thrown into. The stress of the Atos examinations has hastened deaths and caused a number of people to commit suicide. For many others, it is exacerbating their already fragile health condition. Over time sick & disabled people & their supporters have grown more militant and more vocal in their condemnation of ATOS. 

 It’s time for a more human medical assessment & the abolishment of ATOS’ mechanised methods, time for the dismissal of ATOS and the return to a professional medical service, publicly run, and not for profits. 

 While Atos kills, disabled people and their allies are fighting back! 

 Yours in protest

 Brighton Disabled People Against Cuts

 If anyone wants to blockade ATOS headquarters as well here are some numbers:

 atos head office numbers

 +44 (0)20 7830 4444 (Tel)

 +44 (0)800 783 3040 (Freephone)
 +44 (0)20 7830 4445 (Fax)


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## Kaka Tim (Dec 11, 2011)

Having worked in shitty call centres could I ask people not to personalise this agaisnt the low paid saps who are manning the phones? Its their bosses you are after - and its very likely that many of them cant stand the cunts either.


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## smokedout (Dec 11, 2011)

it does say that


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## smokedout (Dec 11, 2011)

having said that, having also worked in a shitty call centre, a good bust up was often one of the few highlights of the grindingly monotonous day


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## golightly (Dec 11, 2011)

I'll point this out to our welfare rights worker.  She's always has plenty of genuine complaints to address to ATOS and she's like a dog with a bone when she thinks something's not right.


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## smokedout (Dec 14, 2011)

how about monday afternoon then?


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## BigTom (Dec 18, 2011)

Are people up for making a phone call tomorrow afternoon?  I will.


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## smokedout (Dec 18, 2011)

me too


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## smokedout (Dec 19, 2011)

join the brighton phone blockade this morning: http://www.facebook.com/events/132910660153707/


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## Yata (Dec 30, 2011)

Fuckers are "assessing" me soon.. French IT firm?? wtf lol


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