Fears deputies will take ‘duvet days’ if working from home

This month’s States meeting is likely to be another ‘hybrid’ affair where deputies will have the option of dialling in from home, or being physically present in the Royal Court Chamber.

At the recent meeting of the States’ Assembly & Constitution Committee serious reservations were aired about the suggestion that hybrid meetings should become the norm even post-Covid.

Sacc president Carl Meerveld said while he would vote in favour of a hybrid meeting this month because of the unique circumstances, he would be very reluctant to have hybrid meetings as the new business-as-usual.

‘I found it very difficult, for instance there was strong echo when people were delivering speeches, the acoustics were dreadful, we couldn’t hear speakers from the other end.

‘When it was all on [Microsoft] Teams there was one common set of rules and way of proceeding, a hybrid meeting ends up with people split in two locations.

‘And it came across as being very, very disjointed. I think this idea of splitting it so that it’s half online and half off creates a lot of difficulties.’

In Jersey the island’s States has decided to permanently adopt hybrid meetings. Deputy Meerveld said he had heard that it was not working well, and had fundamentally changed the nature of democracy.

‘In Jersey they can never get everybody in the room, there’s always someone who’s not feeling well and wants a duvet day, or is away on a trip and wants to participate remotely, and it’s created very disjointed meetings.

‘Not everyone can find an isolated private room at home where they can lock the door and avoid interruptions.

‘How do you make sure everyone is focused and listening and not just walking out the room and going to make a sandwich?There’s a lot of issues I see.

‘My personal preference is to have everybody in the same room participating in the meeting, but having the efficiency and transparency of electronic voting so that every vote is recorded.

‘But what I wouldn’t want is permanent hybrid meetings where people could say they are suffering from Seasonal Adjustment Disorder and they need to vote from a beach in Thailand and participate in the meeting from there, or Majorca.’

Deputy John Gollop concurred that the meeting at St James last month had a few challenges. The technical side had been an ‘absolute disaster’ and the temperature was ‘quite cold’.

The meeting had ran late, and he said this had an unfortunate knock-on effect on a samba band waiting to enter the hall.

‘I met them outside and they couldn’t believe how long people were talking for.’

This month's States meeting is taking place in the usual Royal Court Chamber because St James was already booked out. States members have been told to wear masks and thermals because all the windows will be open.