LONDON (21 December): The United Kingdom Ministry of Justice has signed a £4 million ($A7.2 million) deal with a United States company to provides sensors to monitor the occupancy of Government office space.
The technology will report on whether desks and meeting rooms are occupied or not and the numbers of people leaving or entering part of a building.
Departments have been collecting data on attendance at their headquarters since February as part of a Cabinet Office push to get Public Servants back to offices in greater numbers when COVID-19 restrictions came to an end.
The Departments have used methods such as WIFI and computer log-ins associated with location, as well as swipe pass entry data, space or desk booking systems and manual counts.
The contract with FM:Systems states that it covers the provision of “a web-based reporting solution to measure and report on desk and room utilisation”.
It says this will be provided by a physical sensor recording heat and motion, with the sensors then sending this information to the cloud where an agreed set of reports provide the occupancy data.
The contract further states that the sensors must be capable of reporting whether desks, touchdown spaces and meeting rooms are occupied or not, as well as recording the number of people entering and leaving an enclosed work area.
Union leaders have criticised the use of technology to monitor the occupancy rates of Government offices.
Head of the Public and Commercial Services union, Mark Serwotka described it as a worrying, Big Brother-style development that could be used to victimise his members who worked from home rather than in the office.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said the technology was not a tool for monitoring individuals’ office attendance.
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Malaysian Government sacks PS head
KUALA LUMPUR (December 20): The Malaysian Government has confirmed it has sacked Director-General of the Public Service Department, Mohd Shafiq Abdullah.
Chief Secretary to the Government, Zuki Ali said the decision was made after exhausting all procedures to protect the public interest, and was made after consultation with the Attorney-General's Department.
The sacking comes barely 10 months after Mr Mohd Shafiq was appointed.
He was involved in controversy in August after an Immigration Officer complained that Mr Mohd Shafiq had berated him in public. A Government committee was later formed to carry out an investigation into the incident.
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Liberian wage rise plea slapped down
MONROVIA (December 24): Liberia’s Director General of the Civil Service Agency (CSA), James Thompson has lashed out at Public Servants calling for a pay rise, saying the Government does not exist just to pay their wages.
He said people should be more focused on how Liberia could move forward instead of politicising everything.
“There are other important matters that equally have the Government’s attention rather than listening to cries about Civil Servants’ pay,” Mr Thompson said.
Public Servants in Liberia are among the lowest paid in Africa with some earning as little as US$50 ($A75) a month, leading to some employees at the Ministry of Information launching a protest in support of a pay rise.
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Union to challenge hybrid work ruling
OTTAWA (December 24): Canada’s largest Public Service union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, says it will challenge the Federal Government’s hybrid work plan before the country’s Labour Board.
This follows Treasury Board President, Mona Fortier’s announcement that all Federal Public Servants will be returning to their offices for at least two-to-three days a week in the New Year.
The union, which represents 165,000 Public Servants, said it was opposed to a “one-size-fits-all approach” and it was seeking to ensure remote work was a part of the next collective agreement.
That agreement is under negotiation now, and the Alliance said making changes to working conditions while bargaining was happening was against the law.
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Backflip on key PNG Government job
PORT MORESBY (December 23): Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, James Marape has restored the position of Chief Secretary to the Government, saying it would increase scrutiny of the country’s Public Service.
The position was abolished in 2020 in pursuit of what Mr Marape described as a “flatter” Public Service. He has now more or less accepted that decision was a mistake.
He said the new Chief Secretary to the Government, Ivan Pomaleu “will ensure that the Public Service is effectively functioning and Heads of Departments and Agencies are delivering according to key result areas”.
“I want to appeal to each and every one of you to do what is right for the country. We need to rise above petty issues, personal interests, fortnightly pay, and see the next generation,” the Prime Minister said.
The full International PS News service will resume on January 17
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