A federal union is calling on the president of the Treasury Board to confirm whether the federal government is considering a new return-to-office directive requiring public servants to be in the office more days a week.
The federal government’s hybrid work rules require public servants in the core public administration to be in the office a minimum of three days per week, while executives are expected to be on-site a minimum of four days a week. The rules apply to all employees in the core public service.
In a letter to Treasury Board president Shafqat Ali, sent on Friday, the president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) said the union has heard “persistent rumours of an imminent new return-to-office (RTO) directive.”
“We would be deeply concerned, and frankly extremely disappointed, to learn that the employer is preparing yet another major policy shift without actively seeking and fully integrating union and worker input in advance of making a final decision,” Nathan Prier said in the letter.
“The last RTO rollout was a complete fiasco. Employees suffered, managers suffered, departments struggled, and the process failed in every dimension: planning, communication, fairness, and operational logic. Repeating those mistakes would be unacceptable.”
Prier’s letter says there are rumours the government may introduce a new directive this month requiring employees to be in the office up to five days a week “as early as 2026.”
In a statement to CTV News Ottawa Monday morning, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) would not say whether changes to the office mandate are being considered.
“The Direction on prescribed presence in the workplace has not changed. We have no further information to share,” a spokesperson said.
On Monday, La Presse quoted an internal document from the Treasury Board Secretariat that the government is considering requiring public servants to be in the office full time by Jan. 1, 2027. The newspaper said all senior managers would return to the office five days a week starting Jan. 1, and all other government employees would be expected to return four days a week in July and five days a week in January 2027.
Prier is requesting a meeting with the Ali to clarify the federal government’s plans for federal public servants.
“Clearly the new boss is same as the old boss. We had high hopes after our recent meeting with TBS President Ali, but evidently he, and probably Clerk Sabia, are not interested in productivity gains, reducing costs for the Canadian taxpayer, attracting top talent, regional representation, or environmental impacts of useless commuting and instead are rushing a return to one of the most expensive and inefficient workplace models,” Prier said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.
“This government claims to be looking for efficiencies but ignores obvious solutions, preferring instead to gut public services during a national crisis. We should be converting our offices to housing, but instead we’re wasting billions to make public servants less productive — Mark Carney should explain to Canadians who exactly this decision is serving, because it certainly isn’t taxpayers.”
