“The Public Service Association taking the Government to the Employment Relations Authority over new work-from-home rules shows just how entitled and out of touch the union has become,” says ACT Public Service spokesperson Todd Stephenson.

“Most Kiwis don’t get to unilaterally decide their working conditions – especially when it compromises productivity. The idea that Wellington bureaucrats should be entitled to stay home in their pyjamas while the taxpayers funding their inflated salaries head into work each day is frankly insulting.

“In no other workplace would employees get to dictate terms like this, let alone set their lawyers on their employer for asking them to turn up.

"In the real world, working conditions are negotiated one-on-one. If you can prove a flexible setup won’t drag down performance, you reach an agreement. That’s how normal jobs work.

“Instead, the PSA wants to cling to Labour’s failed ‘flexible by default’ fantasy – a policy that left Wellington’s streets empty, public service performance in decline, and no one able to say who was working where, or on what.

“In Opposition, ACT asked about working from home, but our questions went unanswered. The new policy puts an end to that confusion and restores accountability for what people do, or don’t, deliver.

“It takes a special kind of organisation to do worse with more money. Rather than fighting for the right to stay home, the PSA should go outside, touch grass, and get back to the office to deliver for the Kiwis who pay their wages.”

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