Civil servants revolt over back-to-office orders

The government is facing a backlash over plans to force civil servants back to the office. Hundreds of senior and middle-ranking workers at a union conference have backed motions demanding greater flexibility. The final agenda of the FDA union’s annual delegate conference is said to include a “mandate” directed at the union’s executive “to resist indiscriminate demands from the government for civil servants’ return to office-based working”. One motion declared that “work is no longer a place, but what is done”, and that “blanket rules on office attendance at any level are inappropriate”. Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, which represents senior civil servants will tell the conference: “Whilst private industry has embraced this quiet revolution in working practices, delivering efficiencies for employers and greater flexibility for employees, we have Jacob Rees-Mogg wandering around Whitehall with his clipboard and his clicker counting people at desks.” He added: “And of course, it is only Whitehall. It’s like he doesn’t understand that the majority of civil servants are outside of the M25.” The Times (£) The Telegraph (£) To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews