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Samstag, 19. Mai 2012

Revealed: Civil servants get extra three days holiday if they work over 36 hours a week

Revealed: Civil servants get extra three days holiday if they work over 36 hours a week

Civil servants are being permitted to take up to three extra days’ holiday a month if they work more than 36 hours a week under controversial “flexitime” contracts, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Civil Servants are being allowed to take off up to three extra days’ holiday a month if they work more than 36 hours a week under controversial “flexitime” contracts, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Details of the generous terms available to Whitehall officials were leaked in an escalation of the increasingly tense relationship between ministers and civil servants. A growing number of officials are understood to be working nine-day fortnights by cutting short their lunch breaks and extending normal hours by staying in their offices until 6pm. Civil servants are also allowed to count delays in arriving for work because of late trains or traffic congestion towards their contracted working week.

Many of these working practices would not be permitted in the private sector, where most people are contracted to work up to 40 hours a week or more. A government source said: “Most Fridays, some departments are like ghost towns. It is a very generous system with hardly any controls.”

Last night Whitehall sources said that these “anomalies” would be addressed in a forthcoming Cabinet Office plan to reform the Civil Service. One aide said: “When we came into office we inherited various arrangements from the last government. We are reviewing these to ensure that they are reasonable and sensible.”

Details of the “flexitime” arrangements are contained in leaked Whitehall documents that lay bare the generous nature of the taxpayer-funded contracts.

They are likely to provoke anger in the private sector after senior ministers including William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said companies should “work harder” to help boost the economic recovery.

Earlier this week, it was confirmed that tens of thousands of civil servants would be allowed to work from home during the Olympics. Ministers are pushing for radical reforms to make it easier for underperforming civil servants to be dismissed and for senior officials to be placed on fixed-term contracts.

Steve Hilton, the Prime Minister’s former director of implementation, suggested that the size of the Civil Service could be cut by 70 per cent. The proposals are being strongly opposed by parts of the Civil Service, which is now attempting to take charge of the reform programme. Civil servants have already mounted strikes over cuts to their pensions. One government source said: “It is quickly descending into war between some civil servants and ministers.

“The decision to put the Civil Service in charge of reform is a bit like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas. The radical ideas aren’t exactly flowing.” The Civil Service’s “flexitime” document, which covers the working conditions of tens of thousands of officials, says that “with the exception of the senior Civil Service, all staff are eligible to work flexitime”.

It says that the standard working week is 36 hours in London and 37 hours outside the capital. This means the standard working day is slightly longer than 9am to 5pm, with an hour for lunch.

However, civil servants are permitted to work additional hours — or not take the full lunch break — with the accumulated overtime available to be taken as time off later in the month.

Every month, officials are permitted to take as many as three extra days off if they have accumulated the additional hours.

Alternatively, they can opt to work one and a half days less than expected, and make up the hours the following month.

There is no “clocking system” in Whitehall departments, so officials are responsible for stating the hours that they have worked.

Many civil servants are also entitled to work from home, and can work “flexitime” during these hours. The document states: “The success of flexitime scheme depends largely on the level of trust between you and your manager and that trust is built up through proper implementation of the flexitime procedures.”

“Flexitime” benefits the majority of Whitehall’s 434,000 civil servants. The Cabinet Office insists the average working week for civil servants is 41 hours. This figure, however, includes senior civil servants who are not eligible for “flexitime” and may work longer hours.

Relations between the Civil Service and some ministers have frayed to breaking point.

Ministers have imposed a pay freeze on Whitehall and forced officials to accept cuts to their pensions. Civil servants complain that ministers are blaming them for the Government’s failings. Ministers in some departments in turn accuse their officials of obstructing reform. This week, Ian Watmore, who was in charge of cutting costs across government departments, quit as Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office amid reports that he had a “falling out” with Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister.

New rules for civil servants will be contained in the Civil Service Reform Plan, which will be published by Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the Civil Service, before July. A spokesman for the Cabinet Office defended the system, saying: “To deliver public services on a 24/7 basis the Civil Service, like comparable private sector employers, needs a flexible workforce.”

On Thursday, Sir Bob took part in a charity run with other civil servants in a London park, as the president of the Civil Service Benevolent Fund. The Cabinet Office said he was only detained for 20 minutes at the event and “was performing official dutie

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