Canada Tightens Hybrid Work Policy for Federal Workers

The Canadian government has announced a new “common hybrid workplace policy” for workers in all federal departments, telling them they should expect to spend 40% to 60% of their working hours in a formal office setting by no later than March 31, 2023.

Mona Fortier, president of the Treasury Board of Canada and the minister who announced the new government policy, said the RTO requirement was needed to establish consistency in work patterns across all federal departments.

“We need consistency in how hybrid work is applied across the federal government. This will support our purpose: serving Canadians.” Fortier said.

The government has been getting pushback from two directions as government workers have been in no rush to return to federal offices: business leaders, who have been complaining that the government has been lagging behind the RTO efforts of private enterprise, and public service union leaders, who are demanding to be consulted in the implementation of the government’s hybrid work policy.

Last month, an open letter to Fortier from business leaders scolded the government for “significantly lagging” behind the business sector in luring government workers back to their offices.

The letter, which was signed by 32 business associations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of Canada, said the government—Canada’s largest single employer—has set a poor example with a patchwork of RTO policies when it should be leading the effort.

“As businesses in these communities assess their long-term viability given the pandemic’s damaging effect on downtown centers, restoring normal economic activity requires the federal government to act now,” the letter said.

The letter was a counterpoint to pressure the government is getting from labor unions to show continued flexibility on remote work. Fortier currently is negotiating a new wage pact with federal workers—talks that have hit an impasse as workers, led by the Public Service Alliance of Canada, seek higher wages in the midst of spiraling inflation, Bloomberg reported.

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) had called for government departments to separately develop their own plans in consultation with public sector unions.

According to the letter from the business leaders, the Ottawa-Gatineau area—the region in Canada that has the highest concentration of federal government employees—has the lowest return-to-office rate of any provincial capital in Canada.

According to estimates from the business sector, between 70% and 75% of Ottawa’s private employers again have staff in their offices on a regular basis, typically making for about 55% attendance on any given day in the space they occupy. In contrast, government-tenanted space has often been at less than 20% occupancy.