The federal government will require public servants to work at least two to three days a week in person, or between 40 to 60 per cent of their regular schedule, in the spring.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Mona Fortier, president of the Treasury Board, said the change was to create a common approach to remote work for the federal public service.
“In-person work better supports collaboration, team spirit, innovation and a culture of belonging,” she said.
“We’ve now seen that there needs to be greater fairness and equity across our workplaces and we need consistency in how hybrid work is applied across the federal government.”
The one-size-fits-all hybrid model will come into full effect March 31.
This move represents a change for some departments, although many public servants already work in person several days a week.
Need for ‘fairness and equity’
To allow for a smooth transition, the government will use a phased introduction by Jan. 16, with full implementation by March 31, 2023.
Government of Canada office buildings, as seen in downtown Gatineau, Que., in July 2022, won’t be as empty in the spring of 2023. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Fortier said the government had decided to move to a hybrid system and told departments and organizations to experiment with different hybrid systems to find what worked and what didn’t.
Through that period, Fortier said they identified inconsistencies in approach, mainly through what she described as “fairness and equity” in the system.
“I understand that there were conversations and feedback shared … we informed the unions about this new decision from the management, that location of work is a right of the employer.”
Union calls decision ‘disingenuous’
Jennifer Carr, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), which represents about 70,000 scientists and professionals working for government, said workers have been doing their jobs effectively from home and she is not satisfied by the reasons given for the mandate.
Carr also said her union was given a one-hour notice on the announcement.
“To hear the minister say … the decision was about serving Canadians, and not providing specific examples [about how], is one of the things that I find kind of disingenuous,” she said.
“They are paid for the work that they produce, not where they produce it,” Carr said of her members.
“To meet this mandate, they will have public service come into [Government of Canada] work hubs or work locations and sit on computers and do exactly the same type of work.”
Public Service Alliance of Canada president Chris Aylward called a new in-person work mandate for public servants a ‘knee-jerk reaction’ from the federal government.
Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) President Chris Aylward echoed the sentiments of Carr, saying members have shown they can work remotely.
“We see this as a poorly planned and knee-jerk reaction from the government that doesn’t have the best interest of workers or Canadians at heart, and it’s completely at odds really with the direction that this government has been moving towards on remote work.”
He said the union is currently negotiating a new contract with the federal government and members want the agreement to include their right to work remotely.
“For Treasury Board to unilaterally basically change the terms and conditions of our members’ employment, and imposing a mandatory return to the offices, is an egregious violation of workers’ collective bargaining rates,” he said.
“When you go into collective bargaining, there is a freeze on terms and conditions of employment and certainly that’s not what we’re seeing here.”
“This is a slap in the face of unions and of our members who have shown nothing but complete dedication to their employer and Canadians since the beginning of the pandemic,” said CAPE President Greg Phillips. Read our statement: <a href=”https://t.co/skQdYk1c3k”>https://t.co/skQdYk1c3k</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CanLab?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#CanLab</a> <a href=”https://t.co/1bAFI22d1j”>pic.twitter.com/1bAFI22d1j</a>
The Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE), which represents 23,000 workers, released a statement after the announcement, calling the move “a slap in the face.”
President Greg Phillips said the timing of the announcement, “happening right in the middle of a nationwide viral cocktail of three viruses,” is concerning, noting the current strain being put on the health-care system.
In its statement, CAPE said it was co-ordinating a joint response with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), PIPSC and other bargaining agents.
In a brief statement issued Thursday afternoon, Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe applauded the federal government’s decision.
“The federal government is the largest employer in Ottawa, and having clarity around the future of its workforce is critical for our local economy,” Sutcliffe said.
“When public servants return to government offices, it will be beneficial to both our public transit system and our downtown.”
Please see my statement following the federal government’s announcement of the hybrid working model.<br>—-<br>Veuillez voire ma déclaration à la suite de l’annonce par le gouvernement fédéral du modèle de travail hybride. <a href=”https://t.co/Ub0FXd9hz2″>pic.twitter.com/Ub0FXd9hz2</a>
Fortier said departments will have the latitude to decide whether they require employees to work anywhere from 40 per cent of the time at the office to 60 per cent.
The new model will be applied to the entirety of the core public administration, with it being strongly recommended that separate agencies adopt a similar strategy.
Some exceptions will be made in a very limited set of circumstances and will need approval of management, the news release added.
“If this is about ticking a box about being present in the workplace, and not about how we’re performing, not about the work that we produce, I really have to question the logic,” Carr said.
“Especially the amount of savings that they have garnered over the pandemic and could garner in saving taxpayer money.”
Immunocompromised employees will continue to be able to apply for an accommodation.
“As has been the case from the outset of the pandemic, employees can be confident that effective measures continue to be taken to protect their health and safety in the workplace,” the news release states.
Businesses in downtown Ottawa have long decried federal workers who no longer come downtown to work. But the government has stopped short of saying it would eventually bring all employees back to the office five days a week.
“Hybrid work is the future of the public service,” the release said.
Downtown bar manager hopes for bump in business with return to work
Dominique Labelle of Château Lafayette in downtown Ottawa says she expects a return to a “somewhat normal” existence when public servants come back to the office for two to three days a week.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
