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Civil service office working disputes escalate

By Mark Mansfield
Land Registry office in Swansea. Photo via Google

Disputes over how much of the working week civil servants have to spend in offices are escalating.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) at the Metropolitan Police, Land Registry and Office for National Statistics are involved in rows over office working which have led to votes for industrial action.

The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The union announced on Friday its members working for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) have voted for strike action over pay, working conditions and returning to the office for two days a week.

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UK Government departments

The more than 200 workers, who investigate complaints about UK Government departments, other public organisations and the NHS in England, voted by 81% for strike action on a 67% turnout.

No strike dates have yet been announced.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “Low and stagnating pay is a real issue for our members at the PHSO. It’s exacerbated by people having to pay to commute to the office when they can save money and time by working from home just as effectively, if not more effectively.

“Managers can resolve this dispute if they are prepared to talk to us and be flexible. If they continue to ignore us, then strike action is inevitable.”

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4 comments

John Ellis

Curious how different bits of the civil service appear to be taking varying lines over the 'working from home' issue. My daughter's a civil servant working in Cardiff, but in a part of the public sector which isn't devolved. She tells me that her managers have positively encouraged staff to work from home, because it's enabled their service to save money by giving up the tenancy of 50% - one whole floor - of the office premises which they've hitherto rented.

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hdavies15

Much of the U turn on working from home and hybrid working is down to large commercial landlords lobbying ministers and government departments. They are terrified that with those declining occupancy rates to which you refer they will have "empties" on their hands and less demand for those horrible new builds with which they seem to fill places like Cardiff. Big financial institutions own a lot of tenanted office space and their balance sheets would be weakened by lower demand for boxes.

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John Ellis

That sounds wholly plausible!

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Howie

In all of this with public sector numbers grown by 600,000, productivity declined and most who contact them know, myself included on numerous occasions, the service to individuals has declined. There different views being put forward on home working but no real independent study to inform. As a project manager, I worked from home for over 10 years, 2 days a week prior to retirement, those 2 days allowed me to write reports without the distractions of the office, conversely the other 3;days allowed me to interact with other colleagues in the business and pick up on other activities the business was involved in.

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Curious how different bits of the civil service appear to be taking varying lines over the 'working from home' issue. My daughter's a civil servant working in Cardiff, but in a part of the public sector which isn't devolved. She tells m...

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