Government departments asked to keep better records as WFH figures unknown

Premier Chris Minns has ordered public servants back to the office, signalling an end to WFH. But there’s one big unknown the government needs to solve.

Public service department heads have currently no way of telling how many of their staff work from home each week, or how many days they come into the office, with no record system in place across any government department.

As a result Premier Chris Minns has ordered department heads to build centralised databases detailing which employees have received approval for flexible working arrangements and how many days they come into the office.

This comes after The Daily Telegraph revealed NSW public servants would be ordered to come back to the office effective immediately after the Minns government sent a government-wide memorandum to all departments on Monday, advising working from home privileges had come to an end.

Premier Chris Minns has ordered department heads to build centralised databases detailing which employees have received approval for flexible working arrangements. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Yet when this masthead asked how many workers from each major department including Health, Transport, Planning and Customer Service currently work from home, a Premier’s Department spokesperson said no answer could be provided as WFH arrangements are not always recorded.

“Flexible working arrangements are currently managed on an individual basis, ensuring the arrangements put in place that suit the individual while maintaining service delivery,” the spokesperson said.

“Currently, managers are responsible for monitoring the flexible working arrangements of their staff.

“The majority of NSW public sector employees already work in the workplace, with about 85 per cent working on the frontline.”

There are around 450,000 public sector employees across NSW, with an estimated 85 per cent unable to work from home in jobs like teaching or nursing. This would leave nearly 68,000 people able to work from home.

As a result of this lack of transparency, as part of his demands that public servants return to the office, the Premier has demanded each department maintain a central record of all flexible working arrangements going forward.

Phil Minns, Deputy Secretary People, Culture and Governance at NSW Health wrote to staff on Monday.

On Tuesday The Daily Telegraph revealed that department heads including the Premier’s own uncle, Phil Minns, who is the deputy secretary of people, governance and culture at NSW Health, and Transport secretary Josh Murray had written to staff saying WFH arrangements could continue while they work out how to adapt the policies, despite the directive being effective immediately.

It is understood that part of this adaptation refers to the formulation of a central record-keeping system of which employees get approval to work from home and how often.

“This is government-wide, 95 per cent of the health workforce are actually in hospitals and can’t work from home but across NSW this needs to be implemented for the public service in the state,” the Premier said on Wednesday.

“I know not everyone is happy with this change but it’s important for having a public service that responds to the taxpayers of the state.”

NSW Opposition leader Mark Speakman accused the Premier of not planning the execution of the WFH orders properly.

“We want public servants back at work but this incompetent, chaotic government has not planned it properly ,” he said.

“They certainly haven’t given clear instructions to other senior public servants to make sure they’re falling in line.”