Civil servants WFH — what a Whitehall farce

THE Prime Minister ‘should insist that civil servants return to work immediately. It’s time to read the riot act, to do what Ronald Reagan did to the striking air traffic controllers in the 1980s. Any civil servant not back at work by September 1, without a doctor’s note, should be sacked. No ifs, no buts’.

I wrote that back in August. No, not a couple of months ago — but August 2020. Yet 14 months later, Whitehall is still a virtual ghost town.

Look, I’m not opposed in principle to anyone working from home, provided it can be proved that productivity and services to the public are unaffected.

But that’s patently not the case with Government agencies such as the DVLA and HMRC, where driving licences and tax rebates are being delayed for months.

Frankly, the civil service is taking the proverbial on an intergalactic scale. Any excuse will do.

The latest gripe is that because of the lorry driver shortage, rising food and energy bills and queues at the petrol pumps, it’s too early to expect civil servants to return to work.

Laughably, it is being claimed that the WFH brigade are actually doing taxpayers a favour by saving on the cost of having to heat offices.

A Cabinet Office source said that staff were ‘extremely concerned about the cost of their own living and expensive commute into London and a very difficult, stressful period for them coming up’. Ah, diddums. I’ve heard it all now. As for cost of living and expensive commute, that’s why they get an average £4,000 London weighting allowance, something they’ve kept despite not travelling in to work for the past year and a half.

Their argument might carry more weight were it not for news that business at the Civil Service Club, in Westminster, is picking up again at last.

But not during the week. A staff member told the Mail on Sunday: ‘The only time the rooms are really used are at the weekend, when members come to London to see a show or go out for dinner.’

So it’s perfectly safe for them to take in Mamma Mia! and supper at The Ivy, but far too dangerous to go back to their desks.

Ministers should check the club’s register. Anyone staying there at the weekend while WFH during the week should be fired on the spot.