MANDATORY office attendance targets should be scrapped across the Civil Service, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) conference moved today.

A landmark agreement at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) following two years of industrial action over flexible working rules should form the framework for all government department contracts, delegates in Brighton said.

The first-of-its-kind deal agreed in March ditched a 60 per cent office attendance rule with an overall organisational attendance target of two days per week.

Flexible working provisions also allow for fully remote or completely hybrid arrangements subject to an employee’s role and preference.

The Tories announced return to office diktats across the Civil Service in November 2023.

Under a Labour government, the targets are applied inconsistently across government departments, ranging from 60 per cent to lower than 40 per cent, delegates heard.

“If hybrid working was genuinely damaging productivity we would see these rules applied consistently,” one said.