By Cllr Andrew Gray
The Covid-19 pandemic changed the lives of everyone in the borough in so many ways.
While we can be grateful that the majority of society is back to ‘normal’, the chance to reset our priorities over the pandemic has given rise to some changes which are set to become a regular part of our lives.
One of these changes is the increase of flexible working practices, including working from home and hybrid working.
Wokingham Borough Council has been no different from many organisations in embracing these modern working patterns to improve the working conditions for many council officers.
I was shocked and dismayed to see in this week’s full council meeting agenda a question from the Conservatives calling on the council to get all council officers ‘back at their desks’ instead of ‘helping workers to have more leisure time in their tracksuits’ while ‘enjoying a relaxed home atmosphere’.
The level of condescension and disdain for officers in the question is off the scale and shows a complete lack of understanding of the hard work they do.
The public are right to expect a high level of service from the council and its officers but I am yet to see any evidence from the Conservatives that this epidemic of so-called lazy ‘tracksuit-wearing’ officers exists in Wokingham Borough Council.
The local Conservative’s attitude is painfully reminiscent of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s infamously condescending notes left on the desks of his civil servants working from home.
We need a council that is looking to the future of a modern workforce, not pandering to the Ress-Mogg fan club who would prefer to see the enforced use of quills.
As a teacher, I know that remote working for many professions is not a credible option. But in office-based jobs where the same level of service can be achieved remotely, why shouldn’t we allow workers more flexibility in their work?
What I don’t understand is why the Conservatives have suddenly turned against remote working?
After all, it was in the Conservative’s very own climate emergency plan dating back to 2020 that they specifically outline aims to ‘promote homeworking and remote working practices amongst council staff’ and cite the climate benefits of such an aspiration. It appears to be a bizarre and incoherent attempt to undermine the current administration on a policy that they themselves introduced.
This unprovoked attack on hard working council employees is part of a broader problem with the Conservatives trying to win the culture wars on issues like this.
Why are they doing it? Because it’s all they’ve got left.
Their record in government is dire; they’ve crashed the economy, starved public services of vital funding for 13 years and driven down standards of public life to the lowest levels in living memory.
All they can do is try to exploit hard working people for their short-term political gain.
But ultimately, it is not just the incredibly patronising gesture that this question represents which is the problem. It hits the core point that the Conservatives are impossibly out of touch with working people.
Hybrid working is here to stay and the empowerment it gives workers to have more control over their life can only be a good thing.
That’s why we need a Labour government and a council who will stand up for a 21st century workforce.
Cllr Andrew Gray is the Labour councillor for Shinfield North on Wokingham Borough Council
