(Image: Derek McArthur)
The Scottish Government’s decision to make civil servants attend the office at least twice a week is unworkable, a union leader has claimed.
Civil servants were told they must spend at least 40% of the working week in the office from next month.
The hybrid working policy had only been a target set by Scottish ministers, but civil servants have been told they must self-report their office attendance following a backlash over near-empty offices.
But the FDA union – formerly the Association of First Division Civil Servants – warned mandating the policy could fail to bring civil servants back to the office.
Allan Sampson, the FDA’s national officer for Scotland, warned managers had not been given the guidance to adequately manage the policy, including dealing with exemptions, individual circumstances and non-compliance.
Speaking to The Herald, Mr Sampson said it was “inevitable” the hybrid policy – first introduced in October last year – would have to be reviewed “because the previous arrangements weren’t working as intended”.
However, he said there were concerns within the civil service about how the new policy would work.
“The government are risking recreating the same problems of a year ago,” he said.
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“There’s a number of pieces that need to be in place before you can legitimately mandate people to come in.
“It’s important that where there are legitimate reasons why people can’t meet that target, such as disabilities, that they’re understood by the employer. That’s not clear at this point and there’s a risk of mishandling change, which leads to a lowering of morale.
“The risk is that they have announced that this is a mandatory requirement without giving managers the supporting framework they need to make it workable.”
Officials announced earlier this month that civil servants who fail to meet the office requirement could lose the right to work from home altogether.
Out of Office - our pledge to expose how your money is being wasted on empty civil service buildings. (Image: Damian Shields)
The policy will be mandatory from November 9, with junior and mid-level civil servants in A-C bands told to spend 40% of their hours working in person, while senior staff will be expected to meet a 60% requirement.
The Scottish Government previously said it could not enforce the hybrid working policy because “compromises” had to be made with trade unions.
But data obtained by The Herald’s Out of Office investigation revealed the target was consistently not being met.
Glasgow Atlantic Quay’s building occupancy in January was 32.5%, while Saughton House was 8.2% and Edinburgh’s Victoria Quay was 12.1%.
The Scottish Government stopped providing occupancy data for core civil servants, meaning the public could not track whether the policy had been met.
Instead, it published data for all staff with Victoria Quay sitting at 20.8% in April.
An analysis of attendance between December and January found average core attendance of just 5% on Mondays and 3% on Fridays.
But five key buildings – Bute House, St Andrew’s House, Victoria Quay, Saughton House and Atlantic Quay – cost a combined £41.8 million to run since 2020-21.
Mr Sampson told The Herald the existing hybrid working policy was not “handled well” by the Scottish Government.
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“Staff were given an attendance target, but managers weren’t given clear enough guidance on how to make it work,” he added.
“The risk now is that we repeat the mistakes by making attendance mandatory before we’ve settled the practical details: what exceptions apply, how managers should handle individual circumstances and what happens when someone doesn’t meet the requirement.”
Mr Sampson said the vast majority of the public would not consider the 40% hybrid working expectation to be “unreasonable”, but he said there has to be an adequate location policy in place so that civil servants who do not live within a commutable distance from a Scottish Government office can have an exemption.
In an email to civil servants, Permanent Secretary Joe Griffin said the decision to enforce hybrid working "reflects the Executive Team's judgement that the current approach needs to be strengthened, so we can demonstrate the clear, consistent standard of delivery the public and Ministers are entitled to expect".
"In instances where the requirement is not being met it will be for managers to raise and discuss directly with their team member, as they would for any other workplace policy", it states. "Should an individual’s compliance remain an issue over time, the option for them to work in a hybrid way may be removed."
The email says the government will set out policy saying "more fully where colleagues will be expected to work and how exemptions will operate in future" in early 2027.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Requiring core Scottish Government staff to work in-person 40% of the time is a tightening of the existing policy which gives managers more certainty in implementing the requirement.
“All the existing support arrangements remain in place and managers have been given clear guidance and training in how to use them. The hybrid working policy will continue to support individuals who require reasonable adjustments and exemptions, ensuring every colleague feels valued and supported and is empowered to deliver their best work.”