Beckles-Robinson: Government still looking at work-from-home policy

PLANNING and Development Minister Pennelope Beckles-Robinson said Government is continuing to look at the feasibility of a work-from-home (WFH) policy.

She made these statements during a meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of the Representatives on Monday. The commiteee approved an expenditure of $360,207,500 for the ministry in the 2022/2023 budget.

Asked by Couva North MP Ravi Ratiram whether Government is considering any WFH policy, Beckles-Robinson said there is an allocation of $1 million to the Public Administration to look at such a policy.

She added that her ministry is collaborating with the Public Administration Ministry on this, so she could not give a timeline for when such a policy might be implemented.

But she said, "For us this is an important exercise."

In its 2020 general election manifesto, the PNM identified implementing a WFH policy for the public and private sector as one of its campaign promises.

On March 9, then leader of government business in the Senate Clarence Rambharat said a sub-committee comprising parliamentary secretaries and heads of departments of the ministries of Planning and Development, Public Administration, Labour, Energy, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Personnel Department were looking at this matter.

Rambharat said the sub-committee's work at that time included research on the best practices and a survey done between September and December 2020.

But at a news conference on September 26, after Finance Minister Colm Imbert presented the budget, the Prime Minister said the public sector was not ready for a major WFH policy.

"I don't know that we are sufficiently prepared for that to be a major initiative, largely because it requires certain technical infrastructure and a certain level of discipline.

"Some people not even working in the office, so we have to be careful how we talk about that."

Dr Rowley noted that some private-sector entities have WFH arrangements.