Public sector productivity is at its lowest since 1997, excluding the years of pandemic lockdowns, and some have blamed working from home. Starting in November 2023, civil servants will be able to return to work two to three days a week.
However, some staff at some public institutions, including the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in Newport, South Wales, are refusing to return.
Ed, an IT delivery manager at ONS and president of the PCS trade union, said he had been working almost entirely from home since the pandemic. He says they will be able to drop off their children at school or daycare and won’t have to waste time commuting.
“I have never been told by ONS senior leadership that we have a problem with productivity, a problem with quality, a problem with meeting deadlines,” he said.
“This opportunity will never come again. We must fight for workers’ rights.”
He and other union members have threatened to strike if they are forced to come to the office 40% of the time. Civilian employees of the Metropolitan Police Department and union members of the Land Registry are also in dispute over the policy of returning to office.
The ONS, which is negotiating with the union, said it believed “face-to-face interaction” would help “build working relationships and support collaboration and innovation”.
But whatever the outcome of such conflicts, it is clear that working full-time in an office is now a thing of the past for all of us.
