PCS: DVLA staff go on strike over pay as conciliation staff back action

PCS: DVLA staff go on strike over pay as conciliation staff back action

PCS: DVLA staff go on strike over pay as conciliation staff back action

4,500 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) working for the Department for Transport in the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) will be taking part in a one day strike tomorrow (29 Aug) in a dispute over pay inequality and below inflation pay.

Tomorrow’s stoppage, which falls on the new car registration date, follows 3 days of strike action in the DVLA this year and several months of action short of strike. The action is in response to below inflation pay offers and widening pay gaps between the predominantly female staffed DVLA and the predominantly male DfT and related agencies.

With pay gaps of £2,524 existing between DVLA and the DfT, the union is pursuing equal pay cases. A 10 day preliminary Employment Tribunal hearing starts on 8 September where the union will claim that women executive officers in DVLA are underpaid in comparison with male driving examiners in DSA. The DfT are defending this unequal pay by arguing that women in DVLA cannot compare their pay with driving examiners, despite the fact that they are all crown civil servants employed by the DfT.

Low pay and pay inequality has been further entrenched across the DfT and DVLA by below inflation pay offers where starting salaries can be as little as £12,528.

Meanwhile, PCS members working for the conciliation service ACAS have voted for strike action and action short of a strike in a dispute also over pay.

59% of those taking part in the ballot voted for strike action and 80% for action short of a strike. The industrial action ballot follows delays in settling this year’s pay and a pay remit submitted to Treasury by ACAS, which the union believes will result in real term pay cuts.

This year’s pay increase was due on 1 August yet pay negotiations haven’t started. This year’s delay follows a ten month hold up to last year’s 2007 pay increase.

Tomorrow’s one day strike in the DVLA is the latest in a series of strikes over below inflation pay to have hit civil and public services in recent months and follows a strongly supported strike by coastguards over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Commenting, Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: “The government’s policy of driving down wages with pay offers way below inflation is hitting people on low incomes and entrenching pay inequality in the civil service. It is scandalous that the DVLA’s predominantly female workforce should be underpaid to the tune of £17.5 million a year when compared to colleagues elsewhere in the DfT. This latest stoppage shows that low paid, hardworking civil servants aren’t prepared to let pay inequality go unchecked or endure pay cuts.”

On the ACAS result he went on to add: “Members have indicated clearly that they are not prepared to accept below inflation pay or a repeat of last year’s ten month delay. Staff are feeling betrayed and management and the government need to act quickly in order to avoid embarrassing industrial action in ACAS.

“With the government losing the goodwill of the people who deliver the everyday things we take for granted, there is a rapid need for it to rethink its approach to public sector pay.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

* For further information, interviews and comment please contact Alex Flynn PCS national press officer on 0207 8012820 or 07833 978216.

* PCS, the Public and Commercial Services Union is the union representing civil and public servants in central government. It has more than 300,000 members in over 200 departments and agencies. It also represents workers in parts of government transferred to the private sector. PCS is the UK’s sixth largest union and is affiliated to the TUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka and the president Janice Godrich.

* PCS represents over 4,500 people working for the DVLA.

Alex Flynn
National Press Officer
Public and Commercial Services Union
160 Falcon Rd
London SW11 2LN

Direct line: 020 7801 2747
Mobile: 07833 978 216
Fax: 020 7924 1847

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