Claims new driving tests will force examiners to work for longer, harder and for no extra pay are "deliberately misleading" and "shows a total disregard for learner drivers", the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has said.
Driving examiners are set to walk out for 48 hours starting Monday (December 4) over new-look driving tests.
From Monday, exams will include following directions from a satnav, doubling the length of independent driving to 20 minutes and replacing manoeuvres such as reversing around a corner with more common scenarios like driving into a parking bay.
Thousands of tests have had to be cancelled because of the dispute, but the DVSA has argued the "pointless industrial action" should not be going ahead.
It says the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) accepted its offer three years ago and will not mean examiners work "longer, harder and for no extra pay".
DVSA chief executive Gareth Llewellyn said: “PCS’s pointless industrial action – over an employment contract they convinced their members to overwhelmingly accept three years ago - will not be understood by our customers."
He continued: “We have made PCS an improved offer, to the one they accepted but the union is deliberately misleading its members by claiming the better offer we have put to them requires staff to work longer for less, when it does precisely the opposite.
“PCS’s shameful efforts to link the dispute to the new driving test in an attempt to broaden support for its unreasonable position, shows a total disregard for learner drivers, who have worked so hard to be ready to take their test.”
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