THE South Wales staff at the DVLA are being balloted for strike action in a dispute over Saturday pay.

650 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) who work in the DVLA's Swansea contact centre, one of the largest call centres in the civil service, are facing pay cuts as a result of the Agency slashing allowances for weekend working.

The PCS union claim that management have also introduced "inferior contracts" for new starters in the contact centre, creating a two-tier workforce.

A spokesman for the union said that contact centre staff have always been paid double-time for Saturday shifts, which they are contractually obliged to work, but the DVLA is now threatening to halve the Saturday 'premium' from 1 August. Staff recruited after 1 January, 2015 already receive no extra pay for their Saturday shifts.

Paul Williams, PCS group president in the Department for Transport, said: "DVLA’s argument is that retail and other service industry employees don’t get paid extra on Saturdays so they don’t need to pay it to their staff. But what they are really saying is that, whilst workers elsewhere in the civil service get extra weekend pay, South Wales is a ‘low wage economy’ and they can get therefore get away with paying less to Swansea staff. It’s completely unacceptable."

A DVLA spokesman said: “We are disappointed that PCS are balloting our Contact Centre staff over weekend payments.

“Staff have already voted to accept reduced Saturday premium payments as part of a package of changes to terms and conditions.

“We have contingency arrangements in place to ensure we continue to provide a good service to our customers in the event of industrial action.”

The ballot opened on Friday, 10 July and runs until Wednesday, 22 July.