New information stating Derby City Council staff have been working from places such as France and New Zealand for dozens of days, has been called a “ridiculous situation”. A national newspaper reports “Derby City Council approved someone working from France for 74 days and New Zealand for 42 days.”
The data has come from a Freedom of Information (FOI) report, published by Derby City Council, which says both of the instances of time spent working from abroad happened in 2023.
News of the information has caused concern among some Derby councillors, who believe the time spent by staff abroad is “unacceptable”. It has led to calls for a new investigation into remote working at the city council.
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The reasons for why those days abroad have been allowed to happen are not yet clear. The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has approached Derby City Council for comment.
In October, an FOI request was submitted to the council asking how many staff worked from abroad – full-time or for a period of time – in the year ending December 31, 2023.
The authority submitted answers saying one staff member worked in France for 74 days, one staff member worked from Argentina for 12 days and someone worked in Spain for 25 days. It was also listed a staff member worked from New Zealand for 42 days.
The FOI also asked how many staff worked abroad in 2024 up until October. The council answered one staff member worked from France for 106 days and another instance saw someone worked in the same country for 50 days. Staff also worked from other countries such as Spain and Portugal, the information states.
It is not clear if these arrangements for both 2023 and 2024 were made for a number of employees or restricted to one or two staff members.
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The information has led to immediate concern from some Derby councillors about the council’s working-from-home policy. Conservative councillor Jonathan Smale said he and other councillors from the Conservative group have had concerns about remote working at the council for some time.
Councillor Smale has now called for a suspension of all remote working at the council, in light of the information. He said: “Working from home is not a new concept and has been a concern we’ve raised with senior officers since the pandemic. In light of this new information, I am calling on senior officers to suspend all remote working arrangements immediately and conduct a full audit of every officer engaged in remote work.
“This audit should assess whether remote working is necessary and being used appropriately. While annual leave is understandable, the timeframes being reported for working in countries like France and New Zealand are unacceptable.”
Conservative group leader Steve Hassall added: “We should be mindful these staff are being paid through the public purse. While hybrid working is commonplace, this appears to be much more than that and goes beyond what is reasonable and is certainly unacceptable.”
Alan Graves, a Reform Derby councillor, said: “On the face of it, this is a ridiculous situation. This is the first I have heard of this and quite frankly it is disgraceful that we as councillors are not aware of it.”
Paul Hezelgrave, deputy leader of the Labour-led council, said he was not aware of the circumstances involved. He said he understood staff would need management and IT approval to work in European countries but could not comment when asked about the New Zealand case.
Cllr Hezelgrave said: “Generally if people need to work abroad in Europe in extenuating circumstances that would need to be approved by their director/manager and also by IT.”
“Seventy-four days (in France) seems a long time but it could be set for ‘four days here and four days there’ and not one continuous period. It could be that person has a house in France.
“It could be the work they do lends itself to working in that location and it could be (viewed as) the same as effectively working at their designated home here. The data is too vague to comment on without knowing the full picture.”
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