ONS staff balloted for strike over office return

Staff at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are being balloted for strike action and action short of a strike over plans to require more office attendance.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) at the ONS are being balloted over a requirement for employees to work in the office for at least 40% of the working week.

Until January there had been no requirement for staff to spend a specific amount of time in the office and the PCS claimed there had been regular reassurances that remote and hybrid working arrangements would remain.

However, in late 2023 they were told they would need to spend 20% of their week in the office from January, increasing to 40% in April.

The PCS claims that many members have built their lives around hybrid and remote working arrangements enacted during the Covid-19 pandemic and that no evidence-based business case has been made for disrupting these arrangements.

Although the planned 40% minimum attendance requirement is lower than the 60% soon to be required by many other civil service employers, the sudden change has caused anger among staff who say they now need to make changes to their childcare and other arrangements, it said.

PCS, which last week announced a separate ballot across the civil service over pay, pensions and job protections, has 1,200 members at ONS offices in Newport, Titchfield, London, Darlington, Manchester and Edinburgh.

The ONS strike ballot will close on 2 April.

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A spokesperson for the ONS said: “The ONS has had a hybrid working model for some years now, in line with the wider civil service. Face-to-face interaction supports collaboration and fosters learning and innovation, while some tasks can be done as effectively or even more effectively at home. We are applying this flexibly to help balance business and personal needs, and have offered all colleagues extensive support.”

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