Branches across Fórsa’s Local Government and Local Services Division will soon receive flyers, explaining the changes to the renegotiated Blended Working policy for workers in the sector.

The union-agreed revised policy gives all council staff the right to apply for remote or blended work arrangements, and formally embeds the blended working policy across the sector. 

Head of Fórsa’s Local Government and Local Services and Municipal Employees’ Divisions Richy Carrothers explained that the updated policy represents a significant improvement, offering greater protections for members and incorporating a comprehensive appeals process. 

“The revised policy emphasises a fair, transparent, and swifter process with more opportunities for feedback and engagement. It now includes a robust appeals process and greater protections for members, ensuring decisions are justified and reviews are conducted impartially. While the framework is robust, Fórsa is continuing to work to ensure a fair and transparent approach to worker requests for blended work is applied across the sector, and this revised policy will help to deliver that,” he said. 

Richy encouraged members to familiarise themselves with renegotiated and enhanced policy changes, to help ensure that a fair approach is applied to requests for blended work.

“We know that blended working is good for workers, employers and service users. Fórsa members have continued to demonstrate that this new way of blended working works, by championing and demonstrating a culture of flexibility, agility, trust and innovation. It’s vital that members know their rights and this flyer outlines, at a glance, the policy improvements,” he said.

The revised policy can be viewed in full here and the explainer document can be found here.

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