Thousands of driving tests have been cancelled as examiners prepare to stage a 48-hour walk-out in a row over the new driving test.
A last ditch appeal to the Transport Secretary to resolve the ongoing dispute failed leading members of the Public and Commercial Services union to walk out from Monday, the day the new test in launched.
The union said thousands of tests have been cancelled next week.
General secretary Mark Serwotka wrote to Chris Grayling last week urging him to intervene in the row.
He said: "Learner drivers inconvenienced by this have our sympathy but the blame lies squarely with Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and the government.
"A completely inadequate, last minute reply from the minister to me is so disappointing, and fails to address the causes of this dispute.
"He repeats the misinformation of DVSA management that travelling time was settled three years ago. This is completely wrong. Some issues were resolved in 2015 but travelling time was left to further negotiations.
"Talks have failed as DVSA insisted on imposing new rosters."
The union said examiners are being told to work longer, harder and for no extra pay when the new tests are introduced.
Mr Grayling said in a letter to the union that most of the issues in the dispute had been resolved and negotiations could continue if industrial action was called off.
Union members have voted by 84 per cent in favour of strikes on a 70 per cent turnout.
DVSA Chief Executive Gareth Llewellyn said: “PCS’s pointless industrial action – over an employment contract they convinced their members to overwhelmingly accept 3 years ago - will not be understood by our customers.
“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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