Civil service: fight “60%” rule

The Cabinet Office has announced that civil servants must spend 60% of their working time in the office, irrespective of the nature of their work, their personal circumstances and preferences, and despite technology enabling more flexible working patterns.

Labour has thereby reaffirmed the policy adopted by the former Tory Government last November. Labour’s decision was accompanied neither by evidence showing that a one-size-fits-all mandatory policy is necessary for effective delivery nor by an equality impact assessment, despite the adverse impact on civil servants with primary carer responsibilities. Homeworking enables primary carers, overwhelmingly female, to work full time or to contract more hours on a part time basis because commuting time can be converted to contracted working, a boon to their pay and pensions.

Because the Tories reduced the civil service estate as a cost saving measure, many workplaces cannot accommodate their workforce attending for 60% of their hours. Consequently, in practice, while some civil servants will be mandated to meet the 60% others will be instructed to attend for less time, setting up a two-tier system.

Labour’s decision will see senior managers bear down harder on staff, who already resent such pressure. In the Office for National Statistics members have been taking “action short of a strike” since April, by refusing to comply with their management’s 40% attendance requirement and, since late August, by working to rule. They have a legal mandate to take full strike action, if need be. Labour’s adoption of the 60% mandate “ups the ante” for PCS members everywhere.

Predictably, the response from the “Left Unity” General Secretary of PCS, the largest civil service union, has been very weak: “PCS has reacted with disappointment to the announcement...[and] will engage with the government to seek an approach that will provide workers with the greatest possible flexibility in doing their jobs and delivering public services.”

PCS must fight the 60% mandate both on a national level and within the myriad “Bargaining Units” where, under the divide and rule delegation system, decisions concerning terms and conditions are supposed to be taken. It should do so on the principled basis developed by the PCS Independent Left: that civil servants, including operational staff where this can be enabled by technology, should be able to make their own judgements about their circumstances, work needs, and where they work from.