Civil servants' commute is 'part of work'

Published on Monday 22 January 2007 11:51

CIVIL servants whose jobs have been moved out of Edinburgh are being allowed to treat some of their journey to the office as work, officials said today.

Transport Scotland staff can count phone calls and catching up on e-mails and paperwork while they commute by train to Glasgow as part of the working day.

Opposition MSPs have questioned the scheme, although Transport Scotland denied the move in effect reduced some employee's working day to as little as four hours.

Transport Scotland was set up under last year to help deliver the Executive's transport strategy, and 150 staff were relocated from Edinburgh to Glasgow.

Of these, a spokeswoman said 57 were having their extra travel expenses paid for.

"It is not true that any of these relocated have had their working day reduced," she said.

"What we have in place is a policy that when members of staff who are coming from Edinburgh get on the train, they can start their working day - e-mails, making phone calls, catching up on paperwork.

"It is extremely possible to do that, and this is monitored by their line managers to ensure they are working."

An Executive spokeswoman said decisions on relocation were only taken after careful economic analysis, and considering long term social and economic benefits. She added that the travelling expenses would be withdrawn after five years.