On the day that it was reported that one – unnamed – minister said civil servants should be paid less if they continued to work at home, another has said flexible working is here to stay.
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said flexible working was in accordance with government policy and would continue after the pandemic.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson also rejected the suggestion that civil servants should be paid less if they worked at home, saying: “No. We have no plans for that approach.”
Kwarteng added, in an interview with Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s up to employer and employees to come to their own arrangements depending on the needs of the company, the needs of the business. We don’t need a government diktat telling people exactly how many hours to work in the office and how many at home.”
The remarks contrast starkly with those of another minister who, according to the Mail, said: “If people aren’t going into work, they don’t deserve the terms and conditions they get if they are going into work.”
Kwarteng said: “I’ll be encouraging civil servants [at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy] to come in but there’ll be a degree of flexibility and that’s what we’re working to achieve.”
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He continued: “I think it’s up to employers and employees to come to their own arrangements, depending on the needs of the company, the needs of the business.
“I don’t think it makes sense to have a government diktat telling people exactly how many hours they’re going to spend in the office and exactly how many hours they’re going spend at home.”
The Conservative party’s manifesto in 2019 promised to make flexible working the “default position” for companies in the UK.
It also said then when in power it would take forward recommendations from the Taylor Review and that would build on existing employment law with measures protecting those in low paid work and the gig economy.
However, Matthew Taylor himself has criticised the lack of progress in implementing his reforms.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been particularly vocal about urging staff to return to offices, recently suggesting that the careers of younger people would suffer from working at home too much.
Meanwhile, another unnamed minister was quoted in the Times amplifying a warning from lawyers that people’s career prospects would suffer if they didn’t return to the office. They said: “People will find that those who get on in life are those who turn up to work.”
Former minister and Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith supported that view, saying: “Civil servants need to get off their backsides and into the office and they need to do it pretty quickly.” He added the office was more creative and fostered better mental health.
There should be an end to homeworking as the default, he added. “Managers can’t manage properly, companies aren’t as effective, income goes down – go back to the office.”
He called for London weighting to be scrapped for home workers. “If you’re not travelling anywhere you don’t carry any extra cost,” he said.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon meanwhile said there would be no pressure on Scottish government workers to rush back to the office full time.
She said: “Many people got used to homeworking. Not everybody likes it, many people would like to go back to the office for at least some time, but let’s think about what a model of office working would look like in future that actually prioritises wellbeing as well as hopefully helping us keep the virus under control.”
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