Revised Local Government Blended Working Policy and Procedures have been published by the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA), in a move welcomed by Fórsa. 

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. 

In May 2023, delegates to the Local Government and Local Services divisional conference unanimously passed a motion which sought to trigger the review clause in the pre-existing policy on blended working, with a view to establishing blended working across all local authorities. 

The motion sought to embed blended working in the sector, to ensure it would be available to members to the greatest extent possible, and that any agreed policy would be underpinned by a fair, transparent and equitable appeals mechanism.

Fórsa and the LGMA subsequently agreed to enact the review clause of the policy, and ongoing proactive discussions ensued.
 
Head of Fórsa’s Local Government and Local Services and Municipal Employees’ Divisions Richy Carrothers explained that blended work has proven to be beneficial to both the employee and the employer. 

“Workers have shown that this new way of blended working works, by championing and demonstrating a culture of flexibility, agility, trust and innovation. Undoubtedly there will be some implementation challenges, which we will proactively review on a case-by-case basis,” he said. 

Richy also said that Fórsa is continuing to work to ensure a fair approach is applied to requests for blended work.

“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.

The revised policy can be viewed in full here.

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