Environment secretary Michael Gove has agreed to meet civil service trade unions to discuss the workload pressures at the environment department after criticism of his claim that some civil servants stop work on Wednesday afternoons if they have already worked 37 hours.
Responding to a letter from Steven Littlewood, the FDA trade union’s Defra national officer, asking him to explain reports he told a Cabinet meeting that civil servants “work their 37 hours a week and then they go home, even if that is Wednesday afternoon”, Gove said he was prepared to meet with the union to discuss concerns.
In yesterday's letter to Littlewood, seen by CSW, Gove said: “Whilst I cannot, of course, comment on Cabinet discussions I would like to say that I have been hugely impressed by the commitment, dedication, passion and hard work of civil servants working in Defra.”
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He added that the concerns raised by Littlewood, including that 95% of Defra respondents to the FDA’s recent Working Hours Survey reported working more than their contracted hours every week, while 90% of respondents felt excessive hours were a problem in the department, were “issues I take very seriously indeed”.
He added: “I would therefore like to invite you to a roundtable discussion with representatives of the other recognised trade unions covering Defra and its agencies [Prospect and the Public and Commercial Services unions] so I can hear your concerns first hand.”
It is anticipated that the meeting will now take place next month.
Littlewood told CSW he intended to raise the issue of workforce pressures at the meeting, which will be the trade unions’ first meeting with a Defra secretary of state since 2010.
He noted that Gove had not disavowed the comments that some civil servants can stop work on Wednesday afternoon, which had been first reported in the Sunday Times.
“He’s given us some warm words for the civil servants, which is welcome, but they’ve had that before from him, so from the meeting we’re looking for some concrete steps to address the problems that we’ve raised,” he said.
“There’s a problem of excessive hours. He said he can’t comment on what happened in Cabinet, but we asked whether the comments reported represented his views and he didn’t deny that, and we would like to press him on that point, and pin him down on what concrete measures they’re going to put in place to deal with the problem. That’s what we hope to get out of this – a commitment for him to actually do something about the problem.”
There is a chance for Defra to become a trailblazer across Whitehall on this issue of long working hours, Littlewood added, which was an “endemic problem” across the civil service.
“There’s an opportunity here for Defra to be a bit of a trailblazer in dealing with the issue properly, and set a standard for others to follow.”