Government puts stake in ground over working from home rules

Thursday, 12 December 2024

Working from home as an entitlement is officially out for public servants ‒ “for now”.

New guidelines have been issued to give effect to working from home expectations for public servants, while in the background the public service union has taken legal action.

Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche said the guidance made it clear ‒ “working from home is not an entitlement”.

“All flexible work arrangements must be agreed and managed to support a high-performance culture. The guidance will help agencies ensure there is strong rigour and transparency in managing flexible work arrangements.”

Earlier this week, the Public Service Association (PSA) filed a claim against the Government’s working from home directive, going to the Employment Relations Authority.

Acting PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said the union was “firmly of the view that the Government is unable to do this because of existing agreements which aim to ensure women are not discriminated against”.

The PSA accused the Government of breaching an agreement which the PSA and Council of Trade Unions struck with the Government ”and the gender pay principles which are also contained in many collective agreements”.

'Women make up 62% of public service employees and many need flexible work to help them care for whānau so the Government’s recent directive to restrict working from home will really impact them.“

Sir Brian said the commission “disagrees with the arguments raised by the PSA and will be defending the action”.

“Given that, and the need to provide certainty on the guidance for agencies it was necessary to move forward. For now, I am asking chief executives to give effect to this guidance and ensure their working from home policies are in alignment with it.”

Public Service Minister Nicola Willis, said on Thursday the PSA’s argument was “laughable”.

“That depends on the most old fashioned assumption of gender roles I can imagine. Is this a world in which it is only women who are at home juggling the responsibilities of children that work? Because last time I checked, that's a responsibility for men as well,” Willis said.

“It is the Government's right to make clear the employment expectations that we have of chief executives and agencies. We think that where people have arrangements to work from home, they should be by agreement between an employer and employee.”

On Wednesday, The Post was told the guidance was still in draft form and the commission was still considering feedback received during the consultation process from agencies and unions.

One employee from NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) told The Post she was massively in support of the PSA’s decision to take legal action.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said many workers had changed their ways of life around the ability to work from home and now, “with no grace period”, they’re back in the office.

She said it was a difficult transition for her, and she imagined it would be even more difficult for people with more responsibilities, like pets or kids.

“I think it's quite a jarring thing to go from years of people being able to, you know, mould their lives around their work.”

She said at NZTA, the working from home directive hadn’t hit them as hard as other departments or agencies.

Another woman, who worked at the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment, was in support of employees having the choice to work from home.

She said that she had saved time, money, and stress by being able to wake up later and not catch the bus in the morning, and she saw it had benefited the majority of employees too.

“I want to know in the first place, why were we questioned, what's the turn around?”

Another worker from NZTA said the mandate imposed restrictions where they weren’t needed.

“If jobs require people to be in the office, they'll be in the office. If they don't require them to be in the office, people should have a choice.”

Willis in September asked the Public Service Commission to update its guidelines to reflect that working from home was not an entitlement.