Stop working from home, you have to tell the civil service

Ministers have been ordered to send their civil servants back to the office after it turned out that up to three-quarters of employees still work from home.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Minister of Government Efficiency, wrote to all secretaries of state to say that they should send a “clear message” to staff to stop working from home culture and urge them to ensure that offices funded by taxpayers are at “full capacity”.

On Monday night, Whitehall sources accused government officials who refused to return to the office of not “pulling their weight”, adding that the Covid pandemic could no longer be used as an excuse to stay away from work.

Efforts to return civil servants to the office have been hampered by unions, which are pushing for further concessions on flexible working.

Mr Rees-Mogg wrote: “Now that we are learning to live with Covid and we have removed all legal restrictions in England, we must continue to speed up the return of civil servants to office buildings to realize the benefits of working together face to face. and the wider economic benefits.

“To provide this, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and I urge you to send a clear message to the civil servants in your department to ensure a speedy return to the office.

Mr Rees-Mogg sent ministers a league table showing how many employees from each government department entered the office on average per day in the week beginning 4 April.

The Ministry of Education did the worst, with 25% of employees entering on average every day, while the rest worked remotely.

It is followed by the Ministry of Labor and Pensions, where 27 percent entered the office, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Community and Development, where 31 percent entered.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of International Trade had the largest number of people in the office this week – 73 percent, followed by the Ministry of Health with 72 percent and the department of Mr. Rees-Mogg, the Cabinet, with 69 percent.

The education ministry said the week of April 4 was not representative of his usual presence in the office, as parliament is on holiday and many schools and colleges are closed, meaning more staff than usual are on leave.