Tripling down on government’s position on work-from-home, Public Administration Minister Allyson West says while such a policy has the potential to positively impact on productivity, she is also aware that if not properly executed the consequences could be “nothing short of disastrous”.

Contributing to the budget debate in the Senate on Thursday, Minister West acknowledged the frustration of citizens but said risk assessment was a crucial first step instead of running “helter-skelter”.

“While we recognise that work from home has the potential to positively impact public service productivity, citizen engagement and satisfaction and other factors, we are also aware that if not properly executed giving due consideration to all the relevant factors the unintended consequences could be nothing short of disastrous,” she said.

She noted there are also legal and regulatory issues to consider as well.

Her views echo that of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, who on Budget Day said the implementation of a work from home policy was not a top priority of his government at this time. 

“I don’t know that we are sufficiently prepared for that to be a major initiative, largely because it requires certain technical infrastructure and a certain level of discipline,” Dr. Rowley said on September 26th.

“Because this is Trinidad, eh, and Tobago. So we not ready for a major work from home policy, because some people are not even working in the office So we have to be careful how we talk about that,” he added.