Driving examiner strike: December 2017
Some driving examiners who are members of the Public and Commercial Service (PCS) union are planning to take strike action on Monday 4 December and Tuesday 5 December 2017.
The way the car driving test works is changing on Monday 4 December 2017. These changes will still go ahead as planned.
DVSA will be emailing all training schools with a test booked on 4 and 5 December to give them the choice to either:
change their test appointment to a later date
turn up for their test as planned - but their examiner might be unavailable
What the strike is about
The strike action is about a new standard employment contract that DVSA staff signed up to in 2014. In return for changes to their terms and conditions, they received a buy-out and a 3-year pay deal.
This contract was negotiated with the unions and agreed by staff in a ballot. Since then, PCS has opposed some aspects of the contract
PCS is now trying to link the dispute with health and safety risks of changes to the driving test. The new driving test has been designed to make sure drivers are better prepared for a lifetime of safe driving.
The changes have been developed and trialled extensively with input from DVSA staff, learner drivers, their instructors and other road safety professionals.
DVSA carried out risk assessments and commissioned the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) to carry out an independent assessment. These show that the new test manoeuvres were low risk.