Government is accused of ‘Russian roulette’ at DVLA
THE UK Government has been accused of playing “Russian roulette” with the safety of DVLA employees as the infectious Omicron variant of coronavirus rages around Swansea, after claims it has limited the number of people who can work from home.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the DVLA has had 1,700 staff who have tested positive for the virus, and has taken measures to ensure 2,500 of its 6,000 staff have been able to work from home.
But Swansea MP Geraint Davies and trade union PCS feel that is not enough, and say there should be more investment in home working to ensure the safety of more staff. There are currently 45 or fewer staff members who have the virus.
At the beginning of the first lockdown, the DVLA ran with 250 people on site, with the rest working from home, Mr Davies said. He added that he felt a report on home working produced by Deloitte had been “suppressed” by the Department for Transport and that the level of precautionary home working was therefore less than anywhere else in the civil service, such as the Department for Work & Pensions or HMRC.
He said: “Obviously we all accept some work has got to be done at the office, but the issue is, the more people, the less social distancing, amidst a continuous eruption of Covid.
“Even though management agreed a system with the union PCS of more home working at the end of last year, after infection rates were again surging, the Government again has intervened and this is the second time the Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps has intervened to stop civil servants from the department
introducing commonsense precautions to keep people safe and to give them confidence and give them peace of mind to boost productivity.
“It is playing Russian roulette with the latest variant. We’re now in the situation where the amount of people who have had coronavirus at the
DVLA [over the course of the pandemic] is at 1,700.
“Thankfully, because of vaccination, we are not seeing death of the scale we saw before, but I think the attitude of the Government and in particular Grant Shapps, with the endorsement of Boris Johnson, who
I’ve raised it with twice now, is playing fast and loose recklessly with people’s safety.”
PCS national officer Andrew Lloyd said it had been a “long-running situation” with the DVLA, adding that there had been 291 new cases in the past month. Mr Lloyd said a recent measure brought in has seen staff getting a day off every week on top of their normal holidays, so there are fewer people on site than normal.
“That’s clearly better, but it does not go far enough in our opinion. It’s an improvement but falls short on where they need to be,” he said.
“There has got to be more investment to allow hybrid working. They have never been prepared to invest in that, so they have been uniquely different to the rest of the civil service and they are still failing to keep pace with other private sector organisations. Our main concern of all is it puts our members at risk.”
The claims were put to the Department for Transport, which was contacted for comment, but it referred the Western Mail to the DVLA.
The DVLA has spent more than £5.7m to help keep staff safe on site, introducing safety measures including leasing two new buildings, fitting perspex screens, temperature check stations, increased and enhanced cleaning throughout the day, and regular on-site testing.
A spokeswoman for the DVLA said: “The number of positive cases at DVLA mirrors infection rates in the local community. There are currently fewer than 45 members of staff who would normally work on site that are self-isolating due to testing positive.
“The safety of our staff is paramount and colleagues whose work does not require them to be on site will continue to work from home, as they have done throughout the pandemic.”