Driving examiners and rural payment officers at more than 250 sites across the UK have announced a month of strikes in the first wave of sustained industrial action by civil servants.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union at the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency and the Rural Payments Agency will take part in a series of rolling strikes from December 13 to January 16. DVSA and RPA are two of 124 government departments and other public bodies that have voted for strike action over pay, pensions, job security and cuts to redundancy terms.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This is the first wave of the hardest-hitting industrial action the Government will have faced in decades and will cause a massive amount of disruption. The government, which has spent years turning a blind eye to our pay demands, will no longer be able to ignore us.
"Our members are proud of their work, so it's not easy for them to take action they know will affect the very people they came into the job to serve. But the Government has given them no option. Their pay has fallen far below inflation and many of our members - the Government's own workforce - are forced to use foodbanks because they can't afford to eat.
"The Government is in the position to stop these strikes by putting money on the table. Ministers must know we will not stop until our demands are met and our members receive the decent pay rise they need to get them through the cost-of-living crisis and beyond."
PCS will be announcing strike dates in other departments, including the Home Office and Department for Work and Pensions, over the next few weeks.
