Civil servants poised to strike over plans to stop them working from home

CIVIL servants are poised to go on strike over plans to stop them working from home.

Staff at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are planning to walk out if told to return to the office three days a week, it was claimed last night.

The bureaucrats have been working at home since lockdown began in 2020 and want to keep the option to carry on doing so full-time.

But ministers want full-time employees back at their desks at least three days a week. 

Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister for government efficiency, told the : “Going on strike over returning to the office simply proves working from home is shirking.”

He previously wandered empty offices and left notes on civil servants’ desks saying he was “sorry to have missed them” when they worked from home.

Fran Heathcote, general secretary of PCS, said: “ONS bosses have seriously undermined the trust and goodwill of their staff by seeking to drive this policy through in such a heavy-handed way, heedless of the consequences.

“They now need to immediately pause implementation of the policy and talk to us about reaching a sensible resolution of this issue, which does not carelessly disadvantage staff.”

Nearly three quarters of ONS staff who voted backed industrial action when polled by their union. 

The turnout just met the legal threshold for a ballot at around 50 per cent.