Updated 5pm, adds government reply

Remote working directives reintroduced as part of new COVID-19 restrictions should be implemented fairly and workers should only be made to work from their offices in "exceptional and justified circumstances", a union said on Friday. 

Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin Voice of the Workers said that it has written to principal permanent secretary Mario Cutajar to highlight its concerns about the reintroduced measure. 

In a bid to mitigate the surge in new COVID-19 cases, Prime Minister Robert Abela on Thursday announced a series of new measures, including one requiring public sector workers are to work from home if possible.

UĦM CEO Josef Vella said on Friday that while the union strongly believed that this is necessary, the government had to ensure that workers worked from the office only "in exceptional and justified circumstances".

Not having the necessary tools for remote working was no justification for working from the office as there had been enough time for employees to be given such facilities, it said.

In cases when duties have to be carried out from the workplace, the administration had to create a roster comprising bubbles, with the members of one bubble not mixing with those of another.

Employees working remotely should also not receive a lower take-home pay, UĦM said. This, the union noted, had happened last year and it was unacceptable. 

The union also said that it was not acceptable to refuse to allow employees who have already been vaccinated to work from home, saying these workers could still spread the virus even once inoculated.

Government's reply

In a reply, the government said the UĦM’s letter showed that the premise on which it was written was based on the instructions given a year ago, which relied on teleworking requests being made by public employees. 
 
Thursday’s directive, it said, does not rely on employees’ requests but directed heads of the departments to ensure that any work that can be done by teleworking should be done in this way until further notice. 
 
It added that after Thursday’s directive was issued, the  principal permanent secretary gave guidelines based on which the directive was to be adopted.

Given that it differed from that of a year ago and did not primarily focus on requests and calls for teleworking by employees but was based on administrative direction, it should be implemented differently, including where teleworking allowances are concerned.

The guidelines, the government said, were communicated to all ministries on Thursday afternoon.