For more than two years, federal public servants have been doing their jobs from home.
Now, amid the pressure to return to the office, they wonder why this needs to change.
“It’s an antiquated idea that you have to sit in a workplace, in an office and do your work there when people have been, for the last couple of years, able to do their work at home,” he said. Greg Phillips, President of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees.
According to the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), which represents more than 55,000 federal public servants, 60% of its members oppose a return to office, 25% would support a hybrid return and only 10 percent are in favor of returning to the office.
Now Canada’s largest public servant union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), says it’s working to establish remote work as a collective bargaining right.
“We know that most of our members are still working remotely and many want to continue to have this flexibility… We will continue to fight to enshrine it in our collective agreements during this round of negotiations with the Treasury Board and the agencies,” said PSAC National President Chris. Aylward said in a statement.
The latest push to get employees back to their jobs came from the Privy Council Office, after a memo was sent in June asking federal departments to create a back-to-the-office plan for the fall .
“There are many concerns; we have a lot of questions and there’s been almost no consultation on how these things are going to be implemented,” Phillips said.
Adding to the confusion is that there seems to be no set standard for returning to the office. Unions report that members are told they will have to return for different periods of time depending on the agency, department and even the manager they work under.
“From a union perspective, it would be great if we could go in at the highest level, deal with these issues and speak on behalf of our members,” said Jennifer Carr, PIPSC president.
Since May, the federal Treasury Board has said hybrid work is here to stay, but it’s unclear exactly what it looks like and when it will be implemented.
“I think in the next few weeks, months, we’re going to address those questions, and of course we’re going to have to experiment and we’re going to have to make adjustments as we go along,” Treasury Board Chairwoman Mona Fortier said Monday. .
“A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t necessarily work. You look at the Coast Guard, there are different needs compared to Service Canada, so we all have to work together, make sure we deliver the services to Canadians,” he added.
Union leaders say some departments are looking to fill staffing shortages by giving public servants more flexibility, hoping to draw them away from jobs that require more time in office.
“I fear that some departments that will continue with traditional methods will lose the talent and skills they need in departments that are more flexible,” Carr said.
Still, the return of downtown workers is welcome news to some.
“It’s huge, we’re in the TBS building and we’re 85 percent of what we were before COVID. Down. It’s just horrible,” said Todd Simpson, owner of the Morning Owl on Laurier Avenue.
Simpson says his cafe barely breaks even most months, if at all.
“Something consistent would be very helpful. It’s fluctuating so badly that we can’t plan for it,” he said.
Simpson says 25 percent of the workers in his building are expected to return to the office at least two days a week, starting in September. He hopes that will be the difference maker for companies like his.
“You try to do whatever you can to bring the business in to survive,” he said.