Public servants to be compelled back to office three days a week

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The federal government will soon announce changes to its hybrid work model, obliging public servants to be in the office three days a week, rather than two.

Exact details of when the new rules would be implemented were unclear, but it is expected that changes will be put into action around September, a government source confirmed to this newspaper. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity, adding that an official government announcement isn’t expected until later this week.

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The news outlet Le Droit was the first to report the upcoming changes.

When the federal government released its directive on prescribed presence in the workplace in late 2022, most federal public servants were instructed that there’d be a return to the office for up to three days a week.

That directive mandated that deputy heads implement a “minimum requirement of 2-3 days per week in the workplace for all public servants” or a minimum of 40 per cent to 60 per cent of employees’ regular schedule.

Since then, the topic of telework has been a major point of contention among unions and was a major sticking point during last year’s Public Service Alliance of Canada strike, involving over 155,000 workers.

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat spokesperson Joie Huynh said in an email Monday that the federal public service was committed to hybrid work, but did not respond to whether the government was planning to amend its rules around how many days employees are required to be in the office.

“We will continue to assess how hybrid work is implemented and optimized across the public service, adapting as necessary,” Huynh said.

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Treasury Board president Anita Anand was unavailable to comment Monday on the issue.

In a statement Monday, PSAC said the government had not discussed changing its hybrid work policy during consultations with the union to update its Directive on Telework.

“A move by the Treasury Board in this direction would be in stark contrast to their current practices on hybrid work and recent announcements,” PSAC wrote in an online statement, noting that it had reached out to Treasury Board President Anita Anand to “immediately” discuss the potential changes and their impact on workers. “Public service workers deserve a well-defined and fair approach to hybrid work, developed in consultation with federal bargaining agents.”

Federal public servants returning to the office more frequently is “really positive news,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday at a press conference with Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe. “It’s all about revitalizing the downtown core here in Ottawa.”

When asked if three days is enough, Ford said it was “a good start.”

“It’s always nice to see everyone go to work five days a week, he added.

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Ford said an increased worker presence would support the transit system, small business owners, restaurants and shops who “need to have traffic.”

The premier has urged the federal government to make its employees work in the office more regularly, telling business and community leaders at the mayor’s breakfast in March that “hopefully the prime minister will call people back to work.”

Sutcliffe reiterated the premier’s remarks, telling reporters that if the news is true, the change would be “better for downtown Ottawa and better for public transit.”

“It’s not my decision. It’s a matter between the federal government and its employees. But, ultimately, no matter how many times a week employees are coming to the office, we need to work with the federal government on a plan for downtown Ottawa,” Sutcliffe said. “Downtown Ottawa has been hit disproportionately, compared to other Canadian cities, by the effects of COVID, by the effects of hybrid work.”

In its recent budget, the federal pledged to reduce its office portfolio by 50 per cent, which Sutcliffe said “will have a devastating impact on our economy.”

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“We need to work with the federal government on a solution and many solutions to make sure that we have economic prosperity in the downtown core, that small businesses and restaurants and shop owners are protected, that our finances as a city are protected if we’re hit with a dramatic impact in terms of property taxes because of changes to the real estate market.”

With Postmedia files. 

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