Civil servants told to spend more time in the office - Irish Times - Mod warning #526

It's 3-4 days Dsp are demanding not 2. The sec gen is very very anti wfh and did commission KPMG to do a report on the productivity of it I think. So very surprised they are now saying no data to support. That report clearly shows no productivity gains in office so now not being used... Their sec gen should just retire (they foolishly extended his contract) as he's just not a modern leader and never will be. As I said earlier, led by donkeys. None of the senior teams are modern leaders, all old fashioned old civil servants who all harp back to the good old days in the 70's. Civil service talk about innovation and change, will never happen with donkeys like that in the senior positions. They have no idea what innovation or change really is.

Don’t let old ways of thinking endanger new ways of working

Dear members,

On Thursday evening 30th January, I wrote to all Fórsa members working in the Department of Social Protection (DSP) and the Department of Finance, instructing members to continue to work the patterns they have worked up to now. This is in response to a directive to reduce remote working days from next week.

By now you may have heard coverage of this in the media. I am writing to you now to underline that while this instruction applies to members in these two Departments, we are taking this stand to protect hybrid working across the civil service.

Reviews of hybrid working arrangements must be based on analytics which take account of the benefit to the workplace, the worker, and the wider socio-economic benefits.

We cannot let old ways of thinking endanger new ways of working. We must take this strong stand because a roll back on hybrid working arrangements for some would create a precedent that could impact all civil servants.

This is a serious and avoidable dispute that concerns the unilateral alteration of the Blended Working Policy 2022 to the disadvantage of workers, without discussion, analytics or prior consultation. It is also in clear breach of the Public Service Agreement 2024 -2026 which you voted to approve last year.

It is the first instance in which the Government has rolled back remote working arrangements for its own staff, following the recent publication of the new Programme for Government, which commits the new administration to a review of remote and blended work policies.

If you have any questions on how this impacts you, you should speak to your workplace rep, branch or official.

The union has issued a press release which you can read here.

Yours sincerely,

Éamonn Donnelly
Deputy General Secretary, Head of Civil Service Division

I can see the unions folding. Reason being, large numbers of public servants are frontline and can't work from home. And the most militant and active unions seem to be those representing these frontline workers.

Are, say, nurses working in bad conditions in UHL going to be willing to support a strike by office workers wanting to retain their WFH days. I've heard frontline worker complaining bitterly about their own office and admin colleagues working from home arrangements "probably sitting around watching fcukin Box Sets" was one comment I heard. Also, would the general public be supportive of a strike by so called pen pushers.

This is the gamble Dsp are taking, that unions won't do anything. Then next year they will increase to 4/5 days wfo until it disappears. In this age of full employment when they are struggling to get staff... They try to impose this... I would turn down a CS promotion if I got Dsp and looking at the 22 AP comp I see a good few who landed Dsp did.

This will be the straw that breaks the camels back when it comes to union membership. If they dont or cant take action to protect WFH then id hope people will wisen up and cancel their dues. This will hit people harder than a lousy extra 1or 2 percent in a pay deal.

This 100%

Absolutely go with the 5 days remote. Aside from my current health issues, it's just down to logistics.

I live technically about 20 minutes away from where my office is, but you can be damn sure when I was going to the office it would easily take an hour or more each way down to the sheer volume of traffic, accidents and so on.

NSSO are one until September, defence, education and environment are 2 to name but a few

Blah, blah, framework blah.

The Unions in the public sector are powerful. Maybe less powerful than they once were, but powerful enough nonetheless.

Its the dominant reason that reform of the Health sector has failed, again and again.

I'm not saying the Union intervention in this working time/loc issue is right or wrong, but it would be a strange hill for the management and government to die on, considering that a) there will always be bigger battles ahead, and b) the government is going to have to further incentivise WFH, across all sectors, if they want to have any hope in hell of getting near their 2030 carbon goals.

I fully expect both Departments under discussion here to be still working the pattern a year from now, that they are working today.

Or the sense of entitlement and outrage was disproportionate.

Anyway this doesn't bode well, with the introduction of AI and now core departments mimicking a trump move it just screams thinning the herd methods to me.

I work 2 days in the office and I can say 100% they are my less productive days without a doubt.

Should being the operative word. But as I said, the Unions didn't bother engaging, and quite honestly, a lot of the staff didn't seem too bothered either. I was involved both in the consultation process and in developing the policy within my own department, and saw it for myself. That is why I am skeptical of this "show" being put on by the Unions now.

Her boss is responsible for giving her the work because she doesn't sound the type to go looking for it.