Refused Case Management

Update on Accommodation and Office Attendance

PCS Home Office Merseyside Branch reps regarding plans to increase the number of desks in use to 47% on the 7^th floor and a slight increase on the floor 6 area that RCM uses.

The reason given by management for these changes has been communicated to members since and we are advised that this is to allow the phasing of predominantly homeworking staff into office attendance again in advance of plans to adopt hybrid working guidance (which is currently being consulted on nationally with PCS).

The details are in the departmental communication sent to all staff but broadly this means that from 29 November 131 desks being in use on 7^th floor rather than the 81 currently in use.

This is expected to have the most impact on the Further Submissions Casework area who have broadly remained homeworking throughout the pandemic. Apparently RCM SLT hear from a lot of staff on Further Submissions of the lost benefit of being able to readily speak with peers and senior caseworkers however this does not match the feedback PCS receive in relation to returns to workplaces.

Based on this premise the department are expecting members to attend together with their teams for 1 day per week for the remainder of this calendar year and into the new year and this is based on Phase 5 of the Return to Work protocols. There will also be slight increases in SRU and in the admin teams who have already been attending the office more regularly than the Further submissions side.

PCS do not agree with the justification around needing to regularly bed in ‘team days’ and continue to believe that work that can be done at home, should continue to be done there, and it remains PCS position that there should be no forced returns to workplaces.

However it is recognised that this is not a full return to the workplace and we did obtain assurance that there wouldn’t be an individual requirement to attend once per week so there would be no requirement for a member to attend on a day the rest of their team were not in to make up for any ‘team day’ they were not available for. For example if it was a non-working day or they had annual leave booked.

It is worth noting that within the UK England is the only nation that remains in phase 5. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland only staff within phases 1 & 2 can attend workplaces and the government might decide at any point to move to their ‘Plan B’ if the pandemic were to worsen over the winter which would also likely see Home Office staff in England return to phases 1 & 2. PCS are not expecting any further immediate changes to Home Office workplaces that would see any relaxing of the need to socially distance from colleagues. Any such changes would require a full review of risk assessments for each building and include engagement with PCS.