Stats officials to strike over return to office

Staff at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have voted to strike in protest at plans requiring them to be in the office for at least 40% of the working week.

In a ballot of PCS trade union members, more than 70% of voted in favour of strike action with a turnout of 50%.

An ONS spokesperson said its plans were "in the best interests of the ONS and all our colleagues".

But PCS boss Fran Heathcote accused the ONS of "undermining" staff's goodwill.

She said the new working plans were being implemented in a "heavy-handed way, heedless of the consequences".

She urged the ONS, which collects and analyses data about the UK, 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".

The proportion of people working from home increased dramatically when the Covid pandemic hit, but the government has more recently made clear its desire to see more civil servants coming into the office.

Earlier this year, Cabinet Office minister Baroness Neville Rolfe said there were "clear benefits from face-to-face, workplace-based collaborative working".

Last year Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the office should be the "default" location for workers and expressed the concern about a "loss of creativity" if remote working practices were made permanent.

Current civil service guidance says most civil servants should spend at least 60% of their time in the office.

In November 2023, the ONS - which is a government organisation but independent of ministers - announced that from January its workers would have to spend a minimum of 20% of working hours in the workplace, rising to 40% from April.

The PCS union said this would mean "considerable disruption, especially for staff with childcare and other caring arrangements" and accused the ONS of refusing union requests to consider "a more gradual and flexible transition".

In the ballot, which ended this week, 73% voted in favour of strike action and 84% supported action short of a strike. Six hundred members took part in a the vote - half of those balloted.

An ONS spokesperson said: "There are robust plans in place across the organisation to mitigate against disruption and maintain essential services should any industrial action take place."