Flexible work in public sector at Cabinet Meeting in August

The Council of Ministers is expected to decide in August regarding the proposed forms of flexible work in the public sector, Maria Cleanthous, Head of the Human Resources Management and Labour Relations Department of the Department of Public Administration and Personnel, told CNA.

The milestone for the implementation of flexible working forms in the public service, as set by the Recovery and Resilience Plan, is the end of 2024.

Replying to CNA questions on the matter Cleanthous said that based on the Plan's commitments, as far as the public sector is concerned, "we are obliged to conduct a study, to see what other countries are doing, get to know the flexible forms of employment and see the possibility of applying them to the public service and under what conditions."

This study is the first milestone set by the Recovery and Resilience Plan. The second milestone is the implementation of flexible forms of work, until the end of 2024. "At this stage, a decision by the Council of Ministers on flexible forms of work in the public sector is pending. We believe that in the next few days, before the end of August, the proposal will go to the Cabinet and the relevant decision will be made on which flexible forms we will implement," noted Cleanthous.

The Ministry of Labour has already submitted to the Parliamentary Labour Committee a bill to regulate work from home in the private sector, with MPs requesting that the public service be included in the bill as well. However, Cleanthous told CNA that there is still a way to go before work from home can be implemented in the public sector. "We could not say that the bill promoted by the Ministry of Labour also applies to the public service, because there is still a lot to be done," she explained, adding that after the decision of the Council of Ministers, certain procedures must be completed before implementation can go ahead.

She noted, however, that the relevant bill of the Ministry of Labour sets general principles and general parameters and "one could say that these should also bind the public sector, when we decide to implement it", adding that this can happen later, by way of an amendment or a separate regulation.

She also pointed out that a relevant EU-level directive is pending, which has not yet been formulated. "Therefore we will see what the outcome of that directive will be to see if we should take into account parameters that will be included" in it, she said.

Asked about what needs to be done for teleworking to be implemented in the public sector, Cleanthous said that there needs to be a greater development in available systems and infrastructure, which is why the time up to the end of 2024 is needed.

Asked what other forms of flexible working were being considered, apart from work from home, for the public service, Cleanthous said that flexible working hours are another form. Currently, public service working hours are between 7-8.30am and 2.30-4pm. The time flexibility could extend to 2 hours, she said. Furthermore, she added, reduced employment with reduced pay, for specific categories of employees is also examined. She clarified, however, that at this stage a four-day work week is not on the table.

In response to how the productivity of employees working from home is expected to be monitored, Cleanthous stated that “what we see as an effective measure to monitor employee work (from home) is assigning specific work to be performed remotely. When a permission is granted to work two days a week remotely, both the employee and the supervisor should know what work will be performed and what the expected results should be."

In addition, she underlined that any measure should be consistent with the legislative framework for the personal data of citizens and, in this case, of employees.