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VI shops abroad for tester as staff shortages worsen
Page 6
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• by Mlles BrIgnall
The Vehicle Inspectorate has sent a team to the former East Germany to recruit staff in a desperate bid to fit vacancies at testing stations around the country.
With queues at testing stations growing by the week because of staff shortages the VI has been forced to look abroad for suitably qualified staff.
A VI party was in Germany last week making presentations and trying to recruit 12 testers/vehicle examiners for what the VI says will be an initial trial period of a year.
The VI has a problem recruiting testing staff, not least because the pay it offers is far lower than in the private sector. New testers earn £13-14,000 a year—half what they could command as technicians for HGV dealers or operators. Staff shortages in areas of low unemployment are so acute that operators face long waits for annual tests.
Opposition to the move is already coming from the trade unions that represent VI staff. One union officer says: "This problem is entirely down to pay if the VI offered testers a decent wage then they would not have a problem recruiting UK residents.
"Instead they are taking advantage of the poor state of the German economy to bring people over here—it's a short-term cure to
a long-term problem."
However, VI chief executive ME Newey defends the decision: 'We h problem in getting trained staff in ci areas—particularly the South-East ar M4 corridor—and this is a solution. 1 has a national pay structure for testini which works in many areas but is fai others. We may have to look at hai regional structure that reflects Ica conditions in the future."
Nevi* adds that any overseas re will be just as qualified as existing ti staff; the Irish equivalent of the VI is u taking a similar scheme.
"There will be help to improve thei guage skills and rigorous testing to sure that they are working to our rq,n dards of testing," he says.
Newey also says the Vt has createc squad' of testers who are travelling the country to tackle backlogs at the ti stations with the worst queues.