DGT to employ another 100 driving examiners in response to ongoing strike
Wednesday, July 26, 2017 @ 9:06 PM
AN EXTRA 100 driving examiners will be employed across Spain from next year, of whom 32 will have been drafted in from the Armed Forces, says the country's traffic authority.
At present, the majority of examiners are on strike over working conditions, pay and staff shortages and have threatened to do so indefinitely if improvements are not made.
This is expected to force waiting lists for tests up to at least six months.
General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) boss Gregorio Serrano says the current payroll, of 774 examiners, is expected to rise to 876 by next year, net of retirements planned between now and 2018 – around 52 in total.
But Serrano denies that as many as 150,000 driving tests have been cancelled as a result of the strikes, which started in June and are taking place every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
He says 65,000 practical tests have been called off since the strikes began, but that in June – the first month of industrial action – 80,000 candidates went through their tests, the same number as in April when there were no strikes.
However, he did not concede that more tests would normally take place in a normal June than in April, since most young adults take their lessons and final practical and theory exams between mid-June and mid-September when they break up from college.
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