Most authorised testing facilities (ATFs) were unaffected by the strike carried out by Prospect vehicle testing and enforcement staff working for the DVSA earlier this month, the government agency has said.
In a written statement, a DVSA spokesman told Motortransport.co.uk “over 85%” of ATFs were unaffected by the union’s three-hour strike on 21 November.
It added that while a small number of ATFs had had some tests delayed before 11am, no tests had been cancelled and all were testing as normal during the afternoon.
Another spokesman for the DVSA later told us just 27 ATFs had been affected by the strike.
Prospect negotiator Helen Stevens said the union believed the strike had been “very well supported” with “picket lines across the country”, but admitted it had not brought the DVSA back to the negotiating table.
Confirming a series of full-day strikes would take place every Friday from tomorrow (27 November), Stevens said the DVSA had “upped their threats and bullying of staff” in response to the strike last week in an attempt to stop them taking part in any further industrial action.
ATF Operators Association president Steven Smith said that although he had heard of some ATFs being disrupted by the strike on 21 November, his own test bookings had been successfully covered by DVSA enforcement staff drafted in to carry out vehicle tests during the action.
He admitted, however, that he was “worried” by the prospect of repeated full-day strikes from now on.
“DVSA don’t have the resources to cover a strike action – nobody does. So it will have an impact somewhere,” he said. “DVSA need to talk to Prospect and sort it out.”
Responding to the threat of further strikes, the DVSA chief executive Paul Satoor underlined that its staff had signed up to a new standard employment contract in April last year in exchange for a lump-sum payment and an three-year pay deal that was agreed with the unions and applied to all DfT staff and agencies.
“It is disappointing the trade unions have now chosen to oppose the contract they agreed in 2014,” he added.
Stevens of Prospect told Motortransport.co.uk that although the so-called MEC (modernisation of employment contract) agreement was indeed in place, it had included a commitment to a staffing review and negotiations over resources and deployment which had not taken place. “DVSA are therefore in breach of MEC,” she said.
