Civil service afraid to discipline underperformer with ‘protected characteristics’
general view of signage of Whitehall in London
A civil servant has claimed she was warned not to tackle the poor performance of a colleague because they had “too many protected characteristics”.
The official, who works in the Home Office, told a think-tank event that superiors had warned her there could be “bad publicity” if she disciplined the individual.
She made the remarks after John Glen, the Cabinet Office minister responsible for Whitehall, said he would make it easier to sack bad mandarins.
It comes as Downing Street plans to reduce the size of the civil service by 70,000, to pre-Covid levels, and use the savings to boost military spending.
The female Home Office official, who did not give her name, told an event held by the Reform think-tank of her experience with a poorly performing official.
She said that when she tried to take formal action she was told “don’t do it, there’s too many protected characteristics involved in terms of bad publicity”.
Protected characteristics are features such as age, disability, gender, religion and sexual orientation that could be cited in cases of discrimination.
There are nine protected characteristics, listed in the 2010 Equality Act, which employers must take into account.
They are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage, pregnancy, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation.
‘We can’t make it so onerous’
Mr Glen said in response that he was “alarmed at anything that encourages reticence to take forward performance management for other reasons”.
He added: “It’s just not right. We need to respect all the people who work in the civil service, whatever protected characteristics they have.
“But we can’t make it so onerous to do performance management, because we’re so sensitive to every single sensitivity that we might get wrong or be challenged on, sometimes vexatiously.
“And so I am very clear that we need to put some robust guidelines around that because it is important.”
In a speech at the BT Tower in central London, the Cabinet Office minister outlined plans to roll out performance-related pay for civil servants.
Under the scheme mandarins who meet pre-agreed targets related to the projects they manage would be financially rewarded.
At the same time Mr Glen said he would bring forward reforms to make it easier for Whitehall to sack officials who consistently underperform.
He said: “Too often, high performance doesn’t get recognised, rewarded or incentivised properly. I’m not advocating for hefty bonuses for civil servants.
“However, our current pay structure and the absence of recognition for outstanding performance can breed significant issues.
“It not only drives talented individuals towards the private sector for better compensation, but it can also fuel grade inflation, where promotions are used to circumvent government-wide pay freezes.”
‘Let it be someone else’s problem’
Mr Glen said performance-related pay will be piloted at senior levels within the civil service but could be rolled out on a much wider basis if successful.
The Cabinet Office minister added that incentivising the best officials would go alongside plans to make it easier for bosses to fire the worst ones.
He warned that disciplinary processes were so difficult many departments simply tried to shunt poor performers to elsewhere in Whitehall instead.
“It can be all too easy for leaders to let people move to another team, to let the poor performer become someone else’s problem,” he said.
“We simply cannot allow poor performers to go on hiding in plain sight, dragging down their hard working colleagues and hindering progress.”
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