Federal civil servants will begin returning to office buildings in Ottawa and Gatineau today as the federal government begins a phased return-to-the-office plan.
Starting today, federal employees in the core public service who work from home will have to begin the transition back to personal work, requiring them to be in the office at least two to three days a week.
Many government employees began working from home full-time when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Last year, civil services began making their own decisions about remote and hybrid work.
Treasury Department President Mona Fortier announced the plan to return to the office in mid-December, but federal unions say there aren’t enough jobs for federal employees to return to the office.
“I don’t think the workplace is ready for this,” Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada president Jennifer Carr told CTV National News on Sunday. “I don’t believe the Treasury Board has considered the logistics that are needed to get back to work.”
Carr says the federal government has made a lot of layoffs in the National Capital Region and “lost a lot of buildings” for federal workers. Carr says some employees who returned to Statistics Canada did not have office space, and PIPSC has received reports of employees working in cafeterias and cafeterias.
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada and the Canadian Association of Professional Employees released an open letter Friday calling on the government to halt back-to-work plans. Unions say the plan puts members’ health and safety at risk and “makes no sense” from a logistical and productivity perspective.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada announced in December that it would file a complaint with the Federal Public Sector Employment and Labor Relations Board over the government’s back-to-work plan. Carr told CTV News PIPSC filed a “freeze complaint” with the labor board on Friday regarding the return-to-work plan.
Federal departments have until the end of March to fully implement the back-to-work plan. Fortier told The Canadian Press last week that any consequences for public servants who do not return to office will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Some government officials decried the lack of direction
Ottawa civil servant YuTaek Hwang has been working remotely for nearly three years.
But despite a return-to-office mandate for federal workers that goes into effect this week, Hwang said his department has not offered any information on when he should return.
“We got a corporate email saying they want people to come back two to three times a week, but nothing recently,” he said.
Hwang is not the only civil servant to express concern about the lack of guidance on the return, although others worry about the state of office infrastructure.
Fortier said in an interview with the Canadian Press that the aim of the hybrid work model is to increase collaboration between colleagues. But an internal document suggests there may be hiccups as employees collaborate with colleagues both in person and virtually.
An October briefing paper for Public Procurement Minister Filomena Tassi, which the government proactively released online, said some workplaces may not be equipped with adequate bandwidth to support video conferencing.
“As employees return to workplaces, the level of service they expect may not necessarily be in all Government of Canada buildings,” says the document, which outlines how the minister can answer questions about the back-to-work plan in the House of the municipalities.
Huang, who lives in Kanata, said he would prefer to be completely remote, noting that others whose work requires personal cooperation have already gone to the office.
“The nature of my work does not require me to see or do anything personally. So I really don’t see any benefit in spending a little more than two hours a day commuting,” Huang said.
The return to work comes at a difficult time for public transit in the National Capital Region, where the federal government has most of its offices.
An ice storm that hit Ottawa on Jan. 4 brought the city’s light rail transit system to a partial shutdown for six days.
Some on social media expressed their frustration with the situation and pointed to LRT issues as a reason why the return-to-office policy would be a burden on people with long commutes.
Marty Carr, an Ottawa city councillor, has long been an advocate for better transit and said he wants public servants to have access to a good system.
But she said she knows workers are dealing with time and cost issues, including whether it’s worth buying a monthly transit pass when they’ll only have to be in the office two or three days a week.
“I’m really concerned that more and more federal government employees will make this decision to drive and not use our transit system,” Carr said.
Still, Pat Scrimgeour, the city’s director of transit customer systems and planning, said the system is well prepared and has enough capacity to welcome back state employees.
“We were ready and waiting for them to come back after three years now,” said Scrimgeour.
Businesses that welcome their employees back
Downtown Ottawa businesses say they will welcome returning public servants with open arms this week.
“We are happy to see more traffic on the streets, ie. pedestrians. It’s good to see people discovering our store,” Perfect Books owner Jim Sherman said Sunday.
“It’s always great to see a more vibrant community here downtown.”
At Bel Fiore Flowers, Minoo Banaei says it’s fine if workers decide to return to the office.
“It’s very quiet right now and we need our lives to get back to normal.”
As federal employees return to the office, Carr insists the union is not opposed to returning to the office, but questions the implementation and timing of the policy.
“We’re not opposed to returning to office, we believe there are reasons, but it has to be a presence with a purpose,” Carr said on Sunday.
“People need to be able to come together and work as a team, but you can’t do that if you’re working with remote workers. So walking into an office space to sit in MS Teams every day doing the exact same job you do at home is just demoralizing for a worker.”
With files from The Canadian Press and Judy Trinh, CTV News
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