Storm over water crisis firms letting staff work from home
...but there’s no hosepipe ban at company with a busy office
WATER firms imposing restrictions on millions of customers sparked outrage yesterday after it was revealed their staff are working from home as England faces its driest period in almost half a century.
A Daily Mail audit of hundreds of jobs advertised by five major providers implementing hosepipe bans revealed that for more than a third of positions employees could work from their sofas for at least part of the week.
Britain’s biggest firm, Thames Water, which loses more than 635million litres per day due to leaking pipes, is allowing staff to work remotely while bringing in restrictions for 15million customers.
Astonishingly, the companies refused to say whether their chief executives had been going into the office while the country faces a crisis. The home of Lawrence Gosden, who took over as the boss of Southern Water last month, is thought to be a four-hour-round commute from the firm’s head office in Worthing, West Sussex.
The pay packets for bosses at British water firms shot up by more than 20 per cent last year, with executives taking home an average annual bonus of £670,000. South West Wales yesterday became the ninth UK region to declare drought status. Last night MPs and campaigners criticised the water companies, which between them leak 1.3billion litres of water per day.
Cabinet Office minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said it ‘cannot be a coincidence that businesses and public services that are failing are working from home’.
He added: ‘Wessex Water has a busy head office led by the example of its CEO [Colin Skellett] who was in the office throughout the pandemic. It has no hosepipe ban and was well prepared for the dry weather.’ Patrick Sullivan, of the Parliament Street think-tank, said: ‘It’s no surprise that Britain has such a leaky infrastructure when water chiefs encourage a culture of lounging around at home.’ It has been the driest year since 1976 across swathes of the country, with hosepipe bans expected to last until October. Yet of the 310 job advertisements listed by Southern Water, Thames Water, South East Water, Yorkshire Water and Welsh Water last week, 133 offered employees flexible working arrangements.
Almost one third of the 135 job advertisements on the Thames Water site last week mentioned working from home, with some jobs explicitly stating ‘100 per cent remote working from the start’.
The firm refused to say whether boss Sarah Bentley, who earns a £2million pay package, had been in the office this month.
For Southern Water, more than half of the 110 job listings included details on working from home for up to three days per week. The firm would not disclose whether chief executive Mr Gosden had been going into the office this month.
A third of the job adverts for South East Water and Welsh Water mentioned ‘hybrid’ and ‘flexible’ working options such as one day in the office per week.
Wessex Water allows staff to work from home ‘by agreement’ for a maximum of two days per week.
Southern Water and Yorkshire Water both said they have a flexible working model for non-operational staff. Thames Water said the majority of its staff are based at an operational site or in the field.
A spokesman for Welsh Water said it ensures ‘every one of our colleagues works in a location which reflects the need of their role’.
South East Water said its ‘flexible working policy for non-operational staff is designed to attract the best people from a range of skills’.