NOW GET BACK TO WORK

Civil servants told to return – but top firms insist: we’re staying home

WHITEHALL departments were last night told to order thousands of civil servants back to their desks to start clearing the backlog in public services – while top firms are still encouraging employees to work remotely.

Boris Johnson has told mandarins to tear up the ‘work from home’ guidance which has been in place since March and start getting officials back to the office from the end of next week.

In a letter to all Whitehall ministries civil service chief Alex Chisholm said it was time to ‘change the default that civil servants should work from home, and accelerate the return to the workplace from August 1’.

Meanwhile Britain’s biggest businesses have told hundreds of thousands of office staff to carry on working at home despite growing fears for city centre shops and eateries, a Mail audit has found.

Top firms employing 400,000 staff have only sent back about 40,000 to the workplace so far, after many switched to remote working during the virus crisis.

Unilever, BT, Royal Bank of Scotland, Rolls-Royce and GlaxoSmithKline are among those who still have no immediate plans to do so, despite official guidance giving the all-clear from August 1.

But Whitehall departments have been told to prepare assessments of ‘productivity impacts associated with remote working... and your plans to address any backlogs in service fulfilment that have built up as a result of enforced absence from office working’. The Mail revealed this week that huge delays have built up for key services including passports, driving licences and birth certificates after Government departments sent thousands of key staff home.

Figures showed that more than 400,000 people are waiting for a passport, with advice now saying to only apply if travelling urgently.

The Prime Minister has told officials he wants the backlog cleared by the end of September.

He is said to be convinced that the ‘work from home’ edict has proved a major blow to productivity.

During a visit to a GP surgery in east London yesterday Mr Johnson said: ‘I want to see a massive effort now by the country to psychologically to stop thinking of coronavirus as something that makes it impossible to do things and start really looking at tackling the problems of the British people.’

But the Prime Minister’s plan to get Britain back to a semblance of normality was dealt a blow as top firms told staff they can continue to work remotely. Several bosses say they now expect home working to become the ‘new normal’.

M&G, one of Britain’s biggest fund managers, said it was in no rush for staff to return and that remote working would ‘ continue for the foreseeable future’. But critics warned the prolonged office exodus could deal a terminal blow to the High Street unless more staff return. Ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith, a former work and pensions secretary, said big companies had ‘ an obligation to get people back to work’.

A Mail audit of 60 top firms found many had yet to plan a return to the office. Just one quarter had plans to bring staff back in the next two months.

Coca- Cola, Facebook, Google, Pearson, RBS and Vodafone – which employ a combined 70,000 – are among those who are not planning to do so until next year.

‘Big firms have an obligation’