Some federal government employees are unable to return to the office three days a week because there isn’t enough space in their departments.
The federal government announced in May that workers would return to the office three days a week starting on Monday, with some flexibility built in to ease the transition, but initially employees will be required to spend 60% of their time in the office.
Going forward, executives will be required to be in the office at least four days a week.
The growing federal civil service switched to remote work in March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public employee unions say they have proven their members don’t have to commute and can work just as effectively from home. Employers disagree.
At the same time, the federal government has sought to sell off unused office space, sometimes converting it into housing, to alleviate the current shortage.
Radio-Canada reached out to about 15 federal departments last week to ask about their plans to reopen this week, with some acknowledging they were unable to meet demand for office space.
- The Canada Social Security Agency said not all workplaces can support all employees working a three-day week, so it is granting a temporary exemption that will be reviewed annually.
- Employment and Social Development Canada may not have enough space at its 10 offices, a spokesman said.
- Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada said it doesn’t have the office space in the Ottawa-Gatineau region to move to a three-day workweek because of its expanded operations. Executives will come in four days a week, but other staff will only be able to come in two days a week.
- Similarly, Statistics Canada staff in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver are sticking to their two-day work week, the agency said.
Other departments responded that they had enough office space to accommodate all employees three days a week.
A spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told Radio-Canada that the department has enough available office space to accommodate the change to a three-day work week.
“PSPC will always provide sufficient office space to enable Federal departments and agencies to carry out their programs and missions,” the spokesperson wrote.
Public Services and Procurement Canada manages office space for more than 270,000 federal civil servants. As of March 31, There were about 368,000 federal employees.According to government data.
Eric Champagne, director of the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Governance, said the nuanced meaning of “plenty of space” could be that some departments have a surplus of available space while others are running out of it.
In addition to their own workspace, employees should also have access to meeting spaces and small cubicles, he said.
