Driving examiners to go on strike

Driving examiners will go on strike later in a row over jobs and office closures, leading to the threat of test cancellations.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) across the UK will walk out for three hours from 1.30pm as part of a long-running dispute over cuts at the Department for Transport and its agencies which saw a series of stoppages last month.

The examiners' strike will be followed on Monday by more than a week of industrial action by coastguard staff over plans to close nine of the UK's 18 rescue stations and cut more than 140 jobs.

The strikes, running from July 16 to 24, will involve staff ending their shifts an hour early and starting the next shift an hour later.

The PCS called for the plans to be halted, warning that the cuts will put lives at risk.

Meanwhile, staff at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency will strike on July 27 over office closures.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "Instead of investing in our communities which are already suffering from high unemployment, ministers are ploughing ahead with unnecessary and unpopular closures and cuts.

"In the case of the coastguards we believe these cuts will put lives at risk, and it is time that ministers started listening to the very real concerns of their own staff and the public."