Lost licences compensation
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by Steve McQueen • Promises of compensation according to settlements usually agreed by industrial tribunals could be offered to truck drivers who lost jobs when their licences were revoked unfairly(CM 2-8 Dec 1993).
A campaign to make affected drivers aware of their rights and to inform other applicants who may have failed eyesight tests which were too stringent, has been launched by the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency after it was criticised in a parliamentary report last November.
Many of the drivers who lost their licences have already been contacted, but do not wish to re-take the revised tests, says the DVLA: "Individual cases will be judged on their merits." Compensation will take account of any hardships which have been experienced as a result, it adds.
The DVLA says 231 drivers lost vocational licences between April and July 1991, because standards set were too high, following an administrative error.
The United Road Transport Union says compensation should reflect future needs, if drivers have been unable to find work since because of their age.
This is the second reversal of policy on medical examinations for vocational licences.
At the end of 1991, the DVLA reversed a requirement for some drivers to submit to heart testsangiograms.