Why I am on strike with driving testers
From the Website of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) on PCS.org.uk/news/
December 4 2017
So, the new driving test starts on 4 December. According to the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) we have been given extensive training. This statement is a joke as myself and most of the workforce certainly haven’t been given extensive training. We have had mainly one day, some have been given slightly more, maybe another day or half a day, but speaking to my colleagues, the overall consensus is the training is poor.
Having been in the job for over 10 years I am now very saddened at the lack of training for the new test. I feel bullied, I feel inadequate and I feel like I am being set up for failure. The blogs on the DVSA net tell us that the staff are happy but speaking to a lot of my friends and colleagues across the UK this is not the case. We are all worried and concerned at the health and safety of the new test; we have expressed these concerns to our line managers and above but these concerns by the people in the know have not been taken seriously.
I will be striking on Monday and Tuesday to stand up to the bullies that are higher management and the Department for Transport that has not given us the time to undertake sufficient training.
Working for the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) was an enjoyable time: the staff were happy, the morale was high. People went on detached when asked and were paid travel time for the inconvenience of being at a different test centre, sometimes miles from their homes. They would stay away from their homes and families for part of the week, again being paid for this, and at the end of each financial year there were huge profits.
Today DVSA is all about more money. Not road safety or the safety of staff or the public. The people who do the job day in, day out and see the problems aren’t listened to. We are being told we will make it work without adequate training.
How does 59 minutes fit into a 57-minute slot without the goodwill the DVSA have said they don’t need?
I hope my colleagues join me striking on the 4th and 5th and try to make DVSA a better place to work.
