Minister demands pre-pandemic working

The United Kingdom’s Minister for Government Efficiency, Jacob Rees-Mogg has demanded that Public Servants be ordered to stop working from home so that offices can be restored to "full capacity" following the end of COVID-19 restrictions in England.

In a letter, to fellow Ministers, Mr Rees-Mogg (pictured) made it clear he was not in favour of the large-scale hybrid working experiments adopted in other countries and wanted to the Public Service to revert to pre-pandemic working.

He said in his letter that an average of 44 per cent of Public Servants were working from their Department’s offices on any given day.

“This number must increase to realise the benefits of face-to-face, collaborative working and the wider benefits for the economy,” the letter stated.

However, it is common for Departments not to have space for all of their employees to work in the office at once, and many had some hybrid working arrangements in place before the pandemic.

Unions have objected to Mr Rees-Mogg’s comments, with General Secretary of the FDA, Dave Penman saying they demonstrated the Minister was “less interested in productivity or delivery than in spending time counting Civil Servants in and out of buildings”.

Mr Rees-Mogg is one of several high-profile MPs who have called for an end to working from home.

Chair of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs, Sir Graham Brady said it was “time for the managers of the Civil Service to get a grip and do their jobs” by forcing staff to return to the office in greater numbers.

"It is simply unacceptable for so many of our Public Servants to continue sitting at home,” Sir Graham said.

“Working from your garden shed or spare room is simply harder. Productivity is reduced. Tasks take longer and work is often delivered when it suits the employee, not when the customer needs it.”

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Patel rejects PS advice on migrants plan

United Kingdom Home Secretary, Priti Patel is facing significant opposition from her Public Servants over plans to process migrants in Rwanda.

Ms Patel issued a rare Ministerial Direction to overrule the advice of Public Servants about whether the scheme would deliver value for money.

It is only the second Ministerial Direction — an order enforced by a Minister despite objections from a Permanent Secretary — the Home Office has received in 30 years.

Unions said Public Servants could stage mass walk-outs in protest against the new plans.

Britain has promised Rwanda an initial £120 million ($A211 million) as part of an “economic transformation and integration fund”.

Beyond this, a set amount of funding will be allocated for each migrant, expected to cost up to £30,000 ($A52,700) a person for the flight to Rwanda, and the first three months of accommodation there.

Many Public Servants are against the policy on legal and ethical grounds, and are expected to express their distaste over the direction.

General Secretary of the FDA union, which covers senior Public Servants, Dave Penman says officials could demand a transfer from the Home Office, or leave the Public Service entirely rather than deliver the policy.

“It’s a divisive policy but Civil Servants know that their job is to serve the Government of the day. On the most divisive policies, Civil Servants’ choice is to implement them or leave,” Mr Penman said.

“That could mean elsewhere in the Department, another Department or leaving the Civil Service.”

In a statement, the Public and Commercial Services union said “to attempt to claim this is anything other than utterly inhumane is sheer hypocrisy”.

The row comes as hundreds of Public Servants are being drafted to the Home Office from other Departments to help clear a backlog of Ukrainian refugee visa cases.

A senior Government source said the Home Office had been overwhelmed after hundreds of thousands of people applied for visas through two routes, which allow Ukrainians to travel to the UK if they have immediate family here, or have been matched with a sponsor.

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Minister concedes on inflation demands

The Irish Government says it will engage with Public Service unions on a review of the existing public sector pay agreement due to the rising cost of living.

Surging inflation has led unions to trigger a review clause in the current pay agreement, Building Momentum, which is due to run until the end of the year with a further pay increase of one per cent scheduled for October.

Projections show inflation is likely to be more than six per cent this year — the highest in more than two decades.

Minister for Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath has confirmed that engagement with unions would get under way soon.

This could then pave the way for a full round of pay negotiations in May or June.

General Secretary of Ireland’s largest Public Service union, Fórsa, Kevin Callinan, said there was an urgent need for the Government, in its role as employer of more than 300,000 workers, to engage with unions on the cost of living crisis.

"It's over three weeks since unions invoked the Building Momentum review clause, and nearly two months since I warned the Minister that high and sustained inflation was destabilising the current Public Service agreement, which will bring pay increases of less than 1.5 per cent this year,” Mr Callinan said.

"We need an immediate and serious engagement to protect living standards and ensure the Public Service agreement remains credible."

This latest moves comes as talks are expected to get under way on a successor to Building Momentum with senior sources on both sides pointing to the possibility of a deal before the northern summer.

Meanwhile, the appointment of John Callinan as Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and Secretary General to the Government, has been approved by the Cabinet.

He replaces Martin Fraser in the dual role, which is the most powerful position in the Public Service.

Mr Callinan (pictured) has been the Second Secretary General at the Taoiseach’s Department since 2016. He played a key role representing Ireland during negotiations over the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. He will take up his new role on 3 May.

Mr Fraser is to become Ireland’s Ambassador to the UK.

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Action threatened after Budget pay curbs

United Kingdom public sector unions have reacted with fury after the Government announced that pay increases across the Public Service would be pegged at an average of two per cent for the year ahead, despite surging inflation.

In a written statement, Minister for the Cabinet Office, Heather Wheeler said public sector employers would “have freedom to pay average awards up to two per cent, plus up to an extra percentage point in some cases”.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak lifted a freeze on public sector pay last year, but the fresh limit suggests the Treasury remains reluctant to loosen the purse strings.

By contrast, the latest official figures showed average pay across the economy was increasing at an annual rate of 4.8 per cent. Public sector unions had been calling for increases of up to 10 per cent.

General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, Mark Serwotka said the offer was, in effect, a pay cut because of rising inflation.

He predicted industrial action could follow.

Deputy General Secretary of the Prospect union, Garry Graham said with inflation rocketing, a national insurance increase coming in and energy prices going through the roof “this pay remit guidance means yet another crippling real-terms pay cut for Civil Servants”.

“Once again the Government is using Civil Service pay as a political football and attempting to balance the books by penalising the people who have delivered so much through the twin challenges of Brexit and COVID,” Mr Graham (pictured) said.

General Secretary of the FDA, the union for senior Public Servants, Dave Penman said the Government has decided to abandon its own workforce.

“Ministers are running around with their fingers in their ears trying to pretend it’s business as usual,” Mr Penman said.

Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank, Paul Johnson suggested that with Public Service pay already having been hit by a decade of real-terms cuts, the Government was “testing the limits of employee patience and of the labour market”.

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, Mr Sunak said he did not mind being unpopular because he was doing the right thing for the economy.

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Female executives to shake-up Japan's PS

Two female executives with experience at American companies have been given the task of reforming Japan's Public Service system.

Katsura Ito and Yuko Kawamoto aim to move the bureaucracy away from its traditional focus on seniority and lifelong employment toward a merit-based approach more common in the private sector and overseas.

They will serve together on the National Personnel Authority (NPA), the Agency that makes recommendations regarding pay, working conditions and hiring guidelines for the country's Public Servants.

Ms Kawamoto heads the NPA. A former McKinsey consultant, she represents a departure from the bureaucrats and legal professionals who traditionally fill this role.   

Ms Ito, the Chief Learning Officer at Microsoft Japan, offers experience with marketing and systems engineering. She has been approved by Japan's Lower House to become a Commissioner for the NPA.

During her confirmation process, Ms Ito called on the Japanese bureaucracy to look beyond seniority when making personnel decisions.

"We could have a sort of fast pass for promotions based on merit,” Ms Ito said.

“The current system, which hires Public Servants for life, makes it difficult to take advantage of outside talent."

She advocated more fixed-term contracts and other efforts to attract private-sector expertise, while urging all Government Agencies to digitise in order to boost productivity.

Many of Ms Ito's arguments fell in line with reforms being advanced by Ms Kawamoto, and her confirmation could bolster the Agency chief's drive to overhaul how Japan's bureaucracy operates.

After becoming the NPA's President, Ms Kawamoto pushed to let individual Government Agencies grant most fixed contracts of up to five years without seeking approval from the Authority.

The changes come as the number of applications for the Public Service examination has fallen by around 30 per cent over a decade. Meanwhile, 87 full-time, career-track Public Servants in their 20s quit for personal reasons in fiscal 2019 — four times more than the number six years prior.

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Indonesian officers unhappy with capital move

Some Indonesian Public Servants are pushing back against forced relocation from Jakarta to the new capital of Nusantara.

Authorities say the move is necessary to save sinking and congested Jakarta as well as to enhance development in Kalimantan and eastern Indonesia. 

However one Public Servant, Dwi (not her real name) said she had no desire to make the 2,000-kilometre relocation.

“I'm not sure the move would be good for me. One of my concerns is, what about my husband whose job is in Jakarta?” Dwi, a Government worker for 11 years, asked.

She also wondered what the new capital could provide for her three children, who are now aged between two and nine. 

She is not the only Public Servant who is hesitant to move to the new capital.

Jason Kusuma (also not his real name) is concerned about his children’s education. 

“I have a child with special needs, so he needs certain treatments. Will the new capital have the facilities my child requires?” Mr Kusuma asked.

He also has ailing parents in Jakarta and feels obliged to take care of them. 

“I may resign. It is in my list of options, but I would like to wait and see how things develop,” he said. 

Budi Darmawan (not his real name) did not hesitate to leave the Public Service last year when he was sure the capital relocation would happen.

“When we don’t fit in (with the Government’s vision) anymore, it’s better to leave. No problem,” Mr Darmawan, who has set himself up as a consultant, said.

Speaking at the annual joint military and police leadership meeting, President Joko Widodo said sworn officers must not question Government decisions that had been decided through democratic means.

“The capital move has been decided by the Government and it has been approved by the Parliament. According to the discipline of the military and police, this is no longer debatable,” Mr Widodo said.

Treasury ‘prepared for major pay deal’

United Kingdom Treasury documents have revealed the Government is prepared for a pay deal which gives its 5.5 million public sector workers increases beyond the current rate of inflation.

Negotiations with unions are under way, with the Treasury advising public-sector pay review bodies, which make the final recommendations, to use its two per cent inflation target as a guide rather than the Bank of England’s forecast of 5.75 per cent for the year.

However, figures buried in Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) documents reveal Government spending plans assume the public sector wage bill will increase by 6.7 per cent in the fiscal year starting next month.

A pay rise of that amount would almost certainly be enough to match the annual rate of inflation, even after accounting for the rise in energy prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Public sector employers and unions are currently locked in pay negotiations, with April the key month for settlements. Staff want wages to keep up with surging inflation, and a shortage of workers is giving them rare bargaining power.

In February, the Government proposed a three per cent pay rise for the National Health Service’s 1.3 million staff.

Public Service union, Unison said the “tight-fisted” offer was a wage cut in all but name.

The National Health Service’s pay review body is now considering what to recommend.

OBR projections suggest the big increase in Departmental spending announced in the October Budget might be enough to meet Government plans for Public Service provision and increase pay significantly for public sector workers, who have been subject to freezes and tight pay-rise caps in recent years.

A Treasury spokesman played down the OBR forecasts, saying an assumption of pay bill growth could not be derived from them.

“Pay increases need to be proportionate to the pay rises in the wider economy, balanced with the need to manage the country’s long-term economic health and protect public-sector finances,” a spokesperson said.

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