ONS Staff to Ignore Order to Work in Office 2 Days a Week

Almost 1,200 employees of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will indefinitely ignore an order for them to work in the office for two days a week in an industrial action starting next month. The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said many of its members already willing spend more time in the office, but there’s “widespread upset about the arbitrary nature of the new directive.” In March, the union balloted its members at the ONS. About 73.45 percent voted in favour of strike, and 83.84 percent supported action short of strike, on a 50 percent turn out, PSC said earlier this month. On Friday, the union said ONS staff based in Newport in South Wales, Titchfield in Hampshire, London, Darlington, Manchester, and Edinburgh will “take indefinite industrial action from May 8, meaning they will not comply with a new instruction to spend at least 40 percent of their time in the office.”...