Thousands of civil servants to strike over having to work in the office

Civil servants responsible for registering the ownership of property in England and Wales have opted to stage a walkout as they would prefer to stay working from home.

The industrial action follows management issuing the new work ultimatum to get the office attendance levels back to pre-Covid conditions where the pandemic in 2020 saw civil servants work remotely.

Around 3,800 members of staff, who are a part of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union, based across 14 different offices have backed the strike action. Areas include Croydon, Birkenhead, Coventry, Durham, Lancashire and Gloucester.

Union heads from the PCS group have disputed the need to go into the office, claiming it does not “increase productivity and [is] unpopular with staff members”.

Fran Heathcote, PCS general secretary, said: “If they want a motivated, hard-working workforce, ministers should trust their own employees to have some say over their working conditions, rather than acting like Victorian bosses.

“It’s not too late for management to avoid strike action by ending this dispute.”

The timing and potential impact of the walkout is yet to be determined as the Land Registry has not received formal notification of the strike dates from the union.

A Land Registry spokesman has acknowledged receiving the ballot results but noted they had not yet received any official information of the upcoming industrial action.

“HM Land Registry will respond as needed to maintain essential services as we have done during previous periods of industrial action,” the spokesman said.

The vote comes after a wave of industrial action in other tax-payer funded institutions such as the Metropolitan Police as civil servants demand the right to work from home.

Earlier this month, the force, which includes 999 call handlers and child protection offices, voted to strike with the union claiming demands for them to be in the office more would cause “stress [over] the daily commute”.

A Land Registry strike runs the risk of worsening the ongoing delays that the body has seen since the pandemic. The delay of house sales and battling backlogs could now take even longer depending on the length of the action.