Senior service pay row
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• Senior traffic examiners in the North-East and the Midlands are taking unofficial industrial action as negotiations with the Department of Transport over pay increases have finally broken down.
Their union, the National Union of Civil and Public Servants, is to ballot all its 235 members in September to formalise the action which would lead to a withdrawal of cooperation of new procedures introduced in the past 18 months.
David Heywood, the union's assistant secretary, says: "A new salary structure has been agreed, but the DTp is refusing to implement it. Some members have been regraded, but our 35 senior traffic examiners have been doing extra duties for more than a year without being paid for them They are now withdrawing their good will."
Heywood says any industrial action would not affect normal weighbridge activity. But duties such as prosecution work and statistical returns would be hampered.
The problems for the senior traffic examiners — involved in the enforcement against vehicle overloading — have been bubbling up for the past two years since the Coby review into their procedures, requested by the DTp, made a number of recommendations which effectively increased their workload.
The two major features of the Coby review was that STEs should be more involved with prosecution work to save on solicitor's expenses. It also recommended establishing a National Enforcement Plan, which meant the STEs completing more statistical returns to monitor progress.