Bradford Council has admitted to Philip Davies MP it has no idea how many staff are working from home or have returned to the office.
Shipley MP Philip Davies submitted a Freedom of Information request asking for numbers and the proportion of employees still home working due to the pandemic.
But Bradford Council said it could not provide an answer as it had not “instigated monitoring processes”. It insisted only those classed as Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) would be working from home as a direct result of the pandemic post April 1, but other staff could work flexibly.
Mr Davies said: “I cannot believe the Council has no idea where its staff are on any given day. That is just ludicrous and a cause for concern on many levels. I have no problem with flexible working, but surely an employer should know where their employees are”.
The Council said the pandemic had changed the way services were delivered and the way people work and it had seen benefits from this and the council were “keen to support this flexible way of working.”
In response Bradford Council said: “I can advise that the Council does not maintain records as to the proportion of staff working from home each day. Throughout the Covid pandemic, we followed Government guidance and instigated working practices to safeguard the health and wellbeing of our employees; whilst maintaining essential services. The Council is continuing with enabling staff to continue to work flexibly and like many other councils and organisations this will become the new way of working.
“The Council has not instigated monitoring processes to capture the proportion of staff across all services who are working from home and therefore does not have the information to respond to your FOI request.”
Mr Davies questioned the council pushing ahead with new office space in the city centre when it believed the way people will now be working will change.
Mr Davies said: “By its own admission the Council believes flexible working will become the new norm and so people will not be in the office all the time. Yet they are spending millions of pounds on “grade A” office space in the city centre as it is apparently needed. It seems to fly in the face of their own logic.”