A breakthrough is imminent in the dispute over Government plans to outsource driving tests, paving the way for queues to be reduced from the second half of this year, writes Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent.
Driver testers agreed at a meeting in Athlone organised by their union, Impact, at the weekend, to give "serious consideration" to new proposals that could allow 40,000 tests to be outsourced as a one-off measure.
A deal is expected to be finalised after talks beginning this week involving Impact, the Department of Transport and a third-party mediator.
It is anticipated that the parties will agree a formula designed to cut waiting times for driving tests to between nine and 10 weeks by 2007. The current waiting time is up to a year at some centres.
Part of the formula could include outsourcing, provided driving testers' concerns about job security are satisfactorily addressed.
Alternative proposals, such as the hiring of additional contract staff, will also be tabled at the talks by Impact.
The Government had hoped to significantly reduce the current waiting list for driving tests of nearly 140,000 by outsourcing 40,000 tests to a private company.
Unions opposed the measure, however, on the basis that core Civil Service work could not be outsourced under the terms of the partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress. Their position was upheld in March by the Civil Service Arbitration Board, which ruled that driver-testing was core work and could only be outsourced by agreement with unions.
The board also, however, told the parties they should re-engage to try to find a solution and that all options should be considered.
It is in this context that Impact has moved to hold new discussions with the department.
The move is also being seen as a recognition by the union of the important road safety issues involved. It is also understood that there has been a surge in applications for driving tests in recent weeks, arising from increased publicity about road safety matters.
In light of that, Impact is prepared to concede that proposals it has put forward to address the backlog in applications may not be sufficient to solve the problem.
The union has argued that the number of tests being conducted could increase by 50,000 a year if its suggestions, such as the hiring of contract staff and redeployment of other civil servants, were implemented. Labour Relations Commission chief executive Kieran Mulvey has been mentioned as a possible mediator in the talks expected to begin this week.
It is envisaged that the mediator would have a role in overseeing the implementation of any agreement on outsourcing, and would report back to the parties on whether it was meeting its objectives.
Any agreement reached would probably come into effect when Sustaining Progress expires for the public sector at the end of June.