A GOVERNMENT campaign being launched this week, to ramp up the pressure on employees to return to normal workplaces, has been condemned by Labour, unions, and the SNP.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Barclay said on Sunday that ministers are “keen” for people to stop working from home where possible as it would be “best for the economy.”

The Telegraph has reported an unnamed source suggesting that those employees opting to continue working from home could make themselves “vulnerable” to redundancy in the post-Covid economy.

Labour shadow business minister Lucy Powell has called this language “unconscionable” and has demanded Downing Street “condemn this briefing.”

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would not “intimidate people back to work.”

A spokesman for the Labour-led Welsh government said that employees in the country would continue to be advised to work from home “where possible.”

Mr Barclay defended the government’s planned newspaper and television ad campaign, and said he did not accept unions’ concerns.

Ian Hodson, president of the Bakers and Food Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU) told the Star that the “desperate lengths” that the government is going to get people back into work shows the extent of their “incompetence” in handling the coronavirus pandemic.

He added: “We see at Greencore and other food factories that recent decisions to open the economy and water down the safety measures has resulted in an uptick in Covid cases.

“During the lockdown, we maintained a low level of infection and introduced measures that protected the majority of those in our industry - but the reduction in social distancing and the levelling back has changed that.

“This government is failing the people but their answer to this crisis is to use its hate-driven media to shame people back to work.

“There needs to be real leadership and it is something seriously lacking in Westminster. We deserve better, and we need real political change and a country needs politicians that have higher ambitions for us.”

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said companies should be obliged to publish their coronavirus risk assessments to make sure workplaces are safe enough during the pandemic.

The TUC is demanding that “companies publish health and safety risk assessments so staff and the whole community can see for ourselves whether employers are taking this seriously,” she added.

In a statement on Friday, Ms O’Grady said that PM Boris Johnson needs a “credible plan” to get more people back into their normal workplaces safely rather than a “scare campaign” threatening people’s livelihoods.

She urged ministers to “guarantee” workers’ safety with a “fast and reliable test and trace system,” while enforcing transport safety, investing in better childcare support and strengthening rights for flexible working to benefit disabled people who “can only safely undertake their roles at home.”

Mr Barclay’s push for people to return to work followed conflicting signals on the issue from Cabinet ministers in recent days. 

In what was interpreted as a comment out of step with the government’s message, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he had “absolutely no idea” how many people in his department are currently working from home.

He added: “What I care about is how effectively people work and obviously people should come back to the office if that is what they need to do their job.”