Controversy in England over government agency asking employees for their waistlines to determine if they could return to work in person

A UK agency has sparked controversy over the points system it has put in place to assess which of its employees should work from home and which could work in the office during the coronavirus pandemic. One of the most controversial requirements was that each employee had to confirm their waist size.

This was revealed by The Mirror, which published the UK Vehicle and Driver Licensing Agency (DVLA) standards for men and women.

In a post, several staff from Swansea Driver’s License Headquarters were asked to indicate if your measurement was over 34inch for women or 40inch for men.

The email he asked staff to “all” respond “as soon as possible” to confirm if their height was over the threshold.

It is not known how many workers the request was sent to. But it was part of a “points-based” system the DVLA has been using for the past month to decide which staff should stay home during the pandemic.

Staff get one point each for risk factors that can cause COVID-19 disease to worsen, such as having a high body mass index, being of BAME origin (acronym used in the UK to define non-whites ), be male or be pregnant.

It is believed that those who score four or more points and cannot work from home may receive a “Special paid leave”.

The DVLA insisted the risk assessment followed Welsh government guidelines, it was for the safety of workers and it was not necessary for people to give exact measurements of their height.

But a union called the demand “Degrading and insulting”, while the local MP said it was “ridiculous”.

An entity worker told UK media: “I think it was the straw that broke the camel’s back for some people. People feel like it’s something else that they’re using to get more people back to work and have as few people free as possible. People are nervous, upset, worried about the number of people present. It is very difficult to feel safe on a floor of a tower where there are around 130 staff ”.

The DVLA denied that the assessment would be used to put people back to work, saying more staff, not less, had been put on paid leave since its execution.

The agency insisted that some employees are already working from home if their role permits, and that other workers are in “operational” roles that cannot be performed remotely.

But Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris, who accused the DVLA of “reckless management,” asked why more employees couldn’t work from home.

“My constituency has three public service departments. Why do two of the three allow staff to work from home effectively and efficiently, when DVLA has all of these people in the workplace despite the risk to them and their families? It’s all about trust, they don’t trust their staff to work from home, ”said the MP.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous -added- That’s more than you need to give in any workplace. I am absolutely appalled that any worker is in a position where they have to measure their height as the deciding factor in deciding whether or not they would be at work at that time.“.

PCS union general secretary Mark Serwotka said the DVLA was “Trying to force more staff into the workplace” with the measure.

Added: “It’s degrading and insulting to staff who are already exposed to unnecessary risk by being forced to work in their thousands.”

Shadow Secretary of Transportation Jim McMahon said: “The fact that workers have their waistlines to judge whether they have the right to leave is shocking; it’s incredible that this is happening in a government agency ”.

In December, a Covid-19 outbreak was declared in the center, which employs 6,000 workers, after 352 cases were confirmed in four months.

The DVLA insisted that to date there are currently only six cases in the labor market, two of which are people working from home.

A spokesperson for the DVLA said: “Our priority during the pandemic has been and continues to be the safety of our staff. “

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