Employees want ministers to stay out of decisions over working from home – poll

Exclusive:

the call comes in a study by the Prospect union, which called for bosses and staff to negotiate over patterns

Grafters want to thrash out future working patterns with bosses – without government interference, a poll reveals tonight.

A study for the Prospect union found employees want ministers to stay out of decisions about whether or when staff should return to offices.

The issue has been thrown into the spotlight after the surprise success of working from home arrangements during the coronavirus pandemic.

Given a set of options about who should determine where workers were based in the future, only 11% of those polled said politicians should make the decision.

Some 37% said workers, trade unions and employers should negotiate over when people were based at home and when they were in an office.

Just 24% thought bosses alone should decide where their workers were based, and only 15% of workers thought that employees should be in full control of when they go into the office.

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Yet just 25% of workers have so far been consulted on their future work patterns – and only 14% more have been told they will be.

Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy said: “These figures demonstrate that most workers think government ministers should stop telling them where they should be working.

“Workers aren’t asking for the world – people realise they won’t be able to completely choose where they work, they just want a reasonable conversation with their employer about it. “Unfortunately these conversations are the exception, not the rule.

“Instead of telling workers to get back in the office, government should be telling employers to engage with their own workers and trade unions on this issue, and come up with a solution that works for everyone.”

Researchers quizzed 2,424 UK workers online last month.