100 county council staff are directly impacted by Covid
South Dublin County Council headquarters

100 county council staff are directly impacted by Covid

UP TO 100 staff members at South Dublin County Council are currently affected by Covid.

The local authority has over 1,100 employees, but cases or close contact cases for staff, has led to a level of redeployment, at various times, over the last two years.

Speaking to members at the council meeting on Monday, South Dublin County Council CEO Daniel McLoughlin said: “I don’t want to make out this is more than it is, but just to report that, across our organisation, we are experiencing, I suppose predictable Covid problems. We have upwards of a 100 staff directly affected, or impacted to restrict their movements.

SDCC CEO Daniel McLoughlin

“It is what it is, and as I say I’m anxious to not overplay it. But just to mention it because it has its own implications locally for staff. As of now, we are managing.”

The organisation adapted early in 2020 to a remote working model, with between 50 per cent to 85 per cent of staff working at home, as restrictions fluctuated.

Plans are currently in place to roll out an official hybrid remote working policy plan by mid 2022, according to Mr McLoughlin.

At the meeting on Monday, Cllr Liona O’Toole (Ind) asked for clarification on the council “adopting a hybrid” working model, or if the plan was to “go back to the traditional way it was before in the office 9-5”.

Mr McLoughlin confirmed the council are moving to a hybrid model and they have prepared a “comprehensive analysis of performance and behaviours”.

“Over the last two years, we have conducted staff reviews and staff assessments of what’s working and what’s not working, what’s getting done, what’s not getting done,” he said.

He said it has essentially been “forced remote working”, and cited a national framework that is currently being prepared around remote working, that needs to “ripen into an implementation plan”.

“I do expect at the end of this particular phase of Covid, that we will get back to grips with that again, and that by mid-year we will most definitely have a local policy in relation to that. That would be my hope and expectation,” said the CEO.

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