NORTHERN IRELAND
Ministry of Transport (MoT) staff at Northern Ireland’s vehicle testing centres will go on strike later this month as part of wider Public Service action.
The Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA) has confirmed that MoT testing staff will take part in the action on 26 July.
The strike action comes after it emerged last month that drivers were facing wait times of up to 47 days following an increase of around 15,000 applications for tests in the first three months of this year.
NIPSA said that while staff at MoT centres would normally be excused from strike action, they would take part this time in an attempt to secure better pay and working conditions.
Members voted 68.5 per cent in favour of strike action, with 85.9 per cent of members in favour of taking industrial action short of a strike.
Deputy General Secretary of NIPSA, Carmel Gates said that staff had been doing their best to help the backlog issue at MoT centres.
“In previous years, we would have taken them out of selective strike action, but this action on the 26th does include them,” Ms Gates said.
“We know that part of this backlog has arisen because we simply don’t have capacity at these testing centres.”
She said the Ministry had taken on more temporary staff “and they’re working every hour they can, but some of these guys doing this job are often working second jobs to try and make ends meet”.
“They’re living on tax credits; they’re living on credit-card debt,” Ms Gates said.
She said pay was not the only reason for the strike action.
“This is about more than pay, about more than the below inflation pay offer, it’s about changes to terms and conditions and the fact that we’ve had promotion prospects reduced because the Civil Service has gone to external recruitment for posts that would normally be available to our members via internal promotion,” Ms Gates said.
Many drivers have been left potentially at risk of breaking the law by driving without a valid vehicle certificate due to being unable to secure an appointment with the MoT because of the backlog.
Belfast, 6 July 2019
