Jacob Rees-Mogg has threatened to tighten down on ‘flexitime’ working arrangements, which enable public officials to work five hours less than the national weekly average, frequently remotely and for full pay.
The minister for government efficiency has called for a formal Whitehall-wide review of the arrangement, which he claims is squandering public money. Flexitime enables federal workers to choose their own start and finish times as long as they work during core hours in the middle of the day and put in 37.5 hours per week, and it qualifies them to significant overtime compensation.
According to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, the average work week in the United Kingdom is 42.5 hours.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has previously questioned the estimates, pointing out that nations adopting the ‘direct’ mode of data collection – taking the numbers given by employees – have a propensity to overestimate hours worked.
As a result, it is not the greatest indicator for comparing working hours in various nations, according to the OECD.
Some employees have remarked about how the method has helped them attain a better work-life balance.
However, MPs have accused flexitime employees of avoiding duties, resulting in ‘poor end products’ for individuals who depend on government services.
Rees-Mogg also said that Whitehall has a “culture of wastefulness” and that awakened indoctrination is “intended to turn individuals against one other or talk the country down.”
A full-time job is defined as working more than 35 hours per week. ‘Working around others is beneficial for everyone and will result in increased work satisfaction for public employees,’ Rees-Mogg said yesterday in The Telegraph.
‘That is why I have asked the Cabinet Office to report on the level of flexitime in their departments, and I have asked secretaries of state to do the same in theirs.’
‘I deal with some good civil employees who are cost-conscious, but I see widespread evidence of a culture of wastefulness,’ he said to The Sun.
‘Whitehall has failed to prioritize efficiency. I was always aware that there was an issue with waste, but as minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency at the start of the year, I experienced firsthand how terribly money can be wasted.
‘Unfortunately, it is not only that money is squandered, but what it is squandered on that is so detrimental to our society: increasingly, this is divisive woke agendas aimed to divide people against one other or speak down the country.’
Meanwhile, Conservative MP Philip Davies lamented backlogs in important government agencies and blamed flexitime employment.
‘Whether it’s passports, driving licenses, or visas, the whole process has been quite awful… We can’t have these types of working processes when the final result for so many people who depend on them is so poor,’ he added.
‘While the great majority of public employees do not have flexitime working agreements, such arrangements help the Civil Service to recruit a variety of smart and competent individuals who may have care obligations or impairments,’ according to the Cabinet Office.
‘These agreements are always subject to stringent approval procedures.’
It comes as the Daily Mail reported that hundreds of public officials would never have to return to the workplace after being given permanent permission to work from home.
Official records indicate that the number of Government workers on special ‘home-working’ contracts has almost quadrupled since the outbreak, with the Cabinet Office – which is supposed to lead the effort for public servants to return to their desks – more than doubling from 30 to 62.
‘Taxpayers are weary of the double standards in the civil service,’ said Elliot Keck of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, who received the data under the Freedom of Information Act.
‘Despite the fact that central London real estate is vacant and public sector compensation outstrips private sector pay, the number of Whitehall home workers is increasing. Officials must make savings if mandarins insist on going remote in the long run.’
According to the most recent numbers, only the Ministry of Defence’s headquarters were more than two-thirds full in the final week of July, with 71% of its workforce present. The Scotland Office had the lowest occupancy rate, at 27%. Rees-Mogg has spearheaded the anti-WFH campaign, placing notes on unoccupied Whitehall desks and lobbying governments to urge public workers back to work.
According to the Cabinet Office, the majority of government officials work in offices. Those who want to work from home on a permanent basis must apply to their line manager for a contract modification, which will be granted only under particular circumstances.
Employees who must do tasks such as managing sensitive papers, for example, cannot work from home on a permanent basis.
Those who are permitted to become contractual home workers must complete a six-month trial period and have a dedicated room as their office.
Some attribute significant backlogs to flexitime working arrangements and WFH contracts that were popular during the Covid-19 outbreak, since the number of passports lost by the Home Office almost quadrupled last year.
Between January 1 and October 31, 2021, 312 passports were ‘proven lost,’ compared to 111 in the whole year of 2020.
The figure for last year will be verified next month, although losses are still being reported as being greater than the 168 lost passports in 2019, before to Covid’s arrival.
According to the Telegraph, insufficient employee numbers at the Passport Office are the reason it is in ‘disarray’ and causing’misery’ to visitors.
People continue to report significant delays in obtaining travel papers, causing many families’ vacations to be ruined.