On 28th December, PCS members in DVLA local offices took a day’s strike. This was part of the long running industrial campaign (unfortunately poorly reported by the national union) in Department for Transport (DfT).

Since May last year, members in DfT have taken over 60 different strikes (one day actions and multi hour actions) across different parts of the department. The dispute covers a range of issues though the most pressing concerns job security; security against losing civil service employment, either through compulsory redundancy (as in the local offices in DVLA) or through outsoucing (in DfT’s Shared Services Centre). Although there have been successes (for example, in DSA a no compulsory redundancy guarantee until April 2014 has been won and compulsory redundancies were prevented in the first wave of office closures in DVLA) the PCS is now coming to a crunch with the possibility of 90 day notices being issued in DVLA on 1 Feb. Consequently the Group is looking to escalate action in January.

To keep up to date as to what is happening in DfT please visit: www.pcs.org.uk/dft