CIVIL service call centre staff are staging a two-day strike over proposals to downgrade their jobs.

The Land Registry telephone service centre at Boldon House, Durham City, is one of eight across the country closed, because of the Public and Commercial Services Union action.

The centre provides an ordering service mainly for solicitors involved in land transactions.

Action began yesterday, and Land Registry management decided to close the centres rather than offer a poor service.

Customer surveys have shown that up to 98 per cent of solicitors are satisfied with the call centres' service.

But management is proposing to downgrade administrative officers to administrative assistants.

Union branch secretary Kevin Kelly said that although existing post-holders would not have their pay reduced, new recruits would get the lower salary.

And he said that the union feared the move would result in a poorer service.

"We were involved in the job evaluation, but we don't think it tells the whole story. Our main concern is that it doesn't give enough value to front line services.

"We have had very good customer satisfaction survey results. We wonder whether that will be the case in future. Why change something that is working. We don't think the cost savings would be that great."