Significant gains made in ONS dispute

Following a change in senior leadership at ONS, the PCS national branch has seen a positive change towards industrial relations and has been engaged in productive and meaningful negotiations since October 2025, working towards dispute resolution.

We are pleased to announce that significant hard-won gains have been made through these negotiations. An offer has been announced to PCS ONS members, achieving the majority of the campaign aims of the dispute.

Office attendance will be based on when there is a clear purpose for being there, so office working is reasonable and meaningful instead of being based on an individual attendance target.

• ONS management have agreed to remove individual 40% attendance requirements in favour of an overall organisational attendance target of 40%.
• We would not expect members to be disciplined for not attending the office unless they are persistently and deliberately failing to respond to reasonable requests.

ONS have also firmly recommitted to additional flexibilities for members, including those who joined the organisation during a period where full-time homeworking was the norm, and for those with caring responsibilities, workplace adjustments, and contractual homeworking arrangements.

We see this as a pragmatic compromise for both sides and welcome the renewed commitment towards constructive industrial relations.

Members will be balloted on the offer from 16-30 March, with a recommendation of acceptance from the branch executive committee.