FDA Assistant General Secretary Lucille Thirlby and National Officer Victoria Jones share new resources for members and reps, and set out the next steps in our work on the future world of work.

We’ve been thinking about what’s next for the world of work for a while. It became clear early on in the pandemic that there were real opportunities to recalibrate and reconsider the practices we were so used to – long commutes, the difficulties of participating remotely, the struggle of finding a workable work-life balance. Some of these has issues have been exacerbated by COVID-19 and new pressures have also shot up our list of concerns, but there has also been a chance for us to think about the potential for a quiet revolution in the way we work that has been driven by necessity. 

Our conversations internally at the FDA have been focused on setting the parameters and identifying priorities. We’ve reached out to experts and have had a range of conversations on this topic – you can re-watch our panel discussion from ADC here, which features insight from Leesmans and CIPD. Our experience of negotiating home working contracts for members, managing countless relocations and influencing smarter working initiatives has stood us in good stead for this work, but we wanted to check in with you and find out what it had been like from your perspective. 

Almost 1500 members responded to our Future World of Work survey and you can read our findings here. Part of being in a union is about using your collective voice to influence change and we’ll be using the information our members have shared with us to do just that.  We’ve also used the findings to produce a guide for our hundreds of workplace representatives, which you can access here.

The publication of these documents isn’t the end of the work we’ll be doing on this subject. We’ll be continuing to negotiate parameters centrally and find opportunities for innovation that prioritise inclusion. Locally, we’ll be talking to employers to figure out the nuances that are necessary to enable our members to do their job.

We know that the future world of work is something that our members are passionate about, and we are too. The opportunity to secure ways of working, physical workspaces and working patterns that allow our members to deliver vital public services is something we’re focused on – we’ll keep you up to date with this work as it develops. 

The future world of work: A… by FDAunion