PennDOT DLC workers overwhelmed and overworked by REAL ID demand
Workers at Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Driver's License Centers (DLCs) across the commonwealth have been overwhelmed with the influx of citizens attempting to get their REAL IDs leading up to and ever since the deadline of May 7, 2025.
This has led to PennDOT imposing nonstop mandatory overtime for DLC employees, forcing them to work 10-12 hour days with no breaks and to work on what should have been their days off.
This has had deeply detrimental impacts on the workers' physical well-being, mental health, work/life balance, and personal relationships.
AFSCME Local 1980 President and DLC worker Elisha Morris.
Elisha Morris is President of AFSCME Local 1980 and works at the DLC in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. He has seen and experienced these impacts firsthand, and his pleas to PennDOT management to address these issues have so far gone unaddressed.
"What PennDOT is putting its DLC employees through is immoral, unrighteous, and just downright wrong, but they don’t seem to care about us. They’re just making us work 10, 11, 12 hours with mandatory overtime five days a week for the last three months. This crap has to stop," Elisha said.
DLC workers provide a vital public service to Pennsylvanians and deal with stressful situations and hostile individuals under normal circumstances - the added stress of REAL ID demand has proven to be too much.
The workers offer solutions such as "closing" the DLC earlier (so employees can finish serving customers who are already being processed and actually leave work at the scheduled closing time), making the past-deadline REAL ID requests by appointment only, and hiring retired DLC employees to work part-time to help alleviate the backlog.
Members from Local 1980 and other locals across the state are experiencing the same kinds of issues and submitted the following statements:
"Something needs to be done. Norristown and KOP are choking. We don't see our families any more. We are exhausted."
-AFSCME Local 1980 Member, KOP DLC
"Back in April when we were mandated to work six days a week... For me personally that’s when I was stressed, anxious, coming home sometimes after 6 p.m. Still having to cook or make dinner arrangements for my son and husband. By the end of April I was exhausted. I believe the stress of working late now is causing my migraine to flare back up. I have had two attacks in the last three weeks. Prior to this I may have gotten one a in three-month period. Because of the mandatory overtime, I didn’t go to the doctors because we were working on Mondays."
-AFSCME Local 1980 Member, KOP DLC
"I want to express my support for addressing these unfair working conditions, which have personally impacted my health, well-being, and work-life balance."
-AFSCME Local 1980 Member, KOP DLC
"Just wanted to reach out as a union member in reference to my life-changing experience these past few months being an employee of PennDOT. My whole livelihood has been affected financially, mentally, physically, etc. Let's start from my finances being compromised, which is a part of the puzzle which needs to be completed. MANDATORY six-day work week (along with 10+ hour work days that are still in place as I speak) has been a major part of my life's complete change going on 4-5 months now and continuing! I am a mother of five and grandmother of six who has dedicated at least one to two weekends to my grandchildren and family whom do not reside with me, which is questioned by my grandkids wondering why they have not seen their grandmother. I can't make them understand that work has consumed me because that is not for them to understand! I(WE) are OVERWORKED, OVERWHELMED, EXHAUSTED, MENTALLY & PHYSICALLY drained, which leads to mistakes at work (WHICH I'M HOPING & PRAYING NOT MANY), but working in these conditions will bring just that."
-AFSCME Local 1980 Member, KOP DLC
"I’m a DLEA at the PennDOT King of Prussia location. I have worked as such since August 2024. Over the past few months, the workload, stress, and fatigue of this job have negatively impacted my life. I’m a military veteran with complex PTSD, depression, and anxiety. I also have multiple medical issues that the stressors of this job negatively impact. Under normal circumstances, work is not a problem. However, the volume at the KOP location has become unsustainable with the current staff we have. Not to mention, when we are fully staffed, multiple people from the KOP office are pulled to other locations leaving us short staffed. This happens almost daily. This in turn increases the workload, stress, and fatigue of the staff there. My family has suffered because of the excessive time spent away from home. I have a 5y/o son who has said to me multiple time, 'Daddy, I miss you and want to spend time with you.' As a father this is heartbreaking. By the time I get home from work, it’s his bedtime. I have no time to maintain a relationship with my wife and do things as a family. PennDOT preaches about the importance of family, yet we are told on short notice that our Mondays off are being taken away so the office can be open for Real ID. This has a negative impact on morale. My mental health has suffered because I do not have time for follow-up appointments regarding my health and mental health. Nor do I have any time for a normal life. I’ve spoken with my coworkers, and they have all expressed the same frustration, low morale, and the feeling of being used. I feel like something needs to change. The customers have had years to get Real ID. I feel like staff is being punished because of adults' lack of urgence and responsibility in getting Real ID before the effective date."
-AFSCME Local 1980 Member, KOP DLC
"Since the mandatory overtime began earlier this year, I have been working 9.5 to 10 hours every day except Sunday. I have had to miss family events that were scheduled in the evening because I had no clue what time I would finish work. I haven't been able to schedule events of my own, again because I have no idea what time I will finish work... Earlier during this period, we were mandated to work on Mondays, which is usually my day off, and a day on which I can run errands and schedule appointments without having to use leave. As a result, I have had to run through my sick leave, not only for myself but for my mother, for whom I share care with my two sisters. With a schedule that, when you factor in commute time, runs from roughly 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., when I get home in the evening I only have time to feed myself, feed my pets, and go to bed so I can get up and do it all over again. I have no time for exercise, no time to decompress/destress, and believe me, decompression is necessary in a job where a routine part of the day involves abuse from customers. And the abuse has increased exponentially since the beginning of this period of long days, long lines, and increased paperwork requirements. My husband complains he never gets to see me, even on Sunday, because I am trying to make up for all the evening hours lost to mandatory overtime... Mandatory Overtime is destroying my health and my family life. This cannot continue! It is going to burn out employees and I guarantee there are going to be people who start looking for ways to escape, either by quitting or finding ways to use leave to get around the mandatory overtime. As staffing decreases, it will only increase the stress on those of us who remain. This is not a tenable situation going forward, and something has to change. It is going to break the whole organization eventually."
-AFSCME Local 1985 Member, Bridgeville DLC
"Since mandatory overtime has started, I have missed many opportunities for important doctor appointments, family time, and even ended up in the hospital due to the stress of the job recently. My doctor had to double my blood pressure and anxiety medication because of the amount of stress from the more recent overload of job duties. Having to go in to work on Mondays prevented me from taking proactive care in my health by missing doctors appointments. Working overtime throughout the entire week prevented me from having quality family time and not making it home to make or even eat dinner with my family. All in all, I am mentally and physically drained from the mandatory overtime. It has been very difficult for me to be present to others outside of work. It has also drifted me away from the parts of the job that I really enjoyed. Some of those parts being having a consistant schedule and getting to know people though the customer service of the job. My attitude during work has felt extremely poor because the job is no longer enjoyable from the extra workload and inconsistancy since having to work these mandatory overtime days."
-AFSCME Local 1985 Member, Bridgeville DLC
"I am a DLE at the Bridgeville RealID location. I have a 45 to 90 minute commute one way twice a day. I have four children and a loving wife. Our overtime started in January at Bridgeville. Most weeks my day starts at 7 a.m. as I leave for work as my family is just waking up, then it ends between 7 and 8 p.m. as the children tuck in for the night. I have not shared a meal with my family in the work week in six months. I missed my wife's birthday. We had our jobs threatened (we were informed that we may not return after missing a Monday without a doctor's note) when Mondays were mandatory. It has only gotten worse since the "deadline" of May 7th passed as our days shifted from ending at 5:30 to 6:00 to ending closer to 7:00, but I have been there as late as 7:20. By the time my days off come, my evening home maintenance chores have all built up and I lose at least a day, if not both days, that I could be spending with my family."
-AFSCME Local 1985 Member, Bridgeville DLC
"1. Adverse Health and Stress Impacts: The imposition of mandatory six-day workweeks, combined with the unpredictability of end times, has significantly increased my stress levels and adversely impacted my physical and mental health. The extended hours often left me too physically and mentally exhausted to engage in regular exercise or maintain a consistent health routine. This ongoing fatigue is not sustainable and has had a cumulative effect on my well-being. 2. Interference with Routine Medical and Personal Appointments: To avoid missing work, I have always scheduled medical and personal appointments on Mondays. The addition of mandatory overtime on Mondays, along with the requirement to provide a doctor’s note for any Monday absence, removed the flexibility to reliably schedule care when needed. This uncertainty made it difficult to responsibly plan ahead for health-related matters or essential errands. 3. Delay of Critical Responsibilities: Necessary tasks such as vehicle repairs have been repeatedly postponed. Other time-sensitive obligations, such as errands requiring business hours or coordinating transportation for others, became increasingly difficult to manage with limited availability outside of mandatory work hours. 4. Loss of Compensatory Time: Prior to the start of mandatory overtime, the option of earning and using compensatory time was removed. I did not seek overtime for financial reasons, I valued the ability to take back personal time when needed. The loss of this flexibility further compounded the strain of the extended work schedule. 5. Chronic Staffing Shortages: Throughout this entire period, we have also been consistently shortstaffed. On some days, such as one instance where only my supervisor and I were present, we had to cover the counter alone while the other took their break. There have been other occasions where I’ve had to work the counter alone for periods of time due to the ongoing staffing shortages. This has only added to the pressure and has made already difficult days even more physically and mentally draining. The overall impact of this policy has disrupted nearly every aspect of personal life and well-being, and I respectfully ask that these concerns be taken seriously and addressed appropriately moving forward."
-AFSCME Local 1986 Member, Belle Vernon DLC