The Ontario movement to order public servants who work from the full -time office is asking questions about their potential impact on the government’s ability to recruit and retain qualified personnel.
The Government of Prime Minister Doug Ford said to the 60,000 members of the Public Service (PAHO) that must be in their workplace at least four days a week from October and then in the full -time office since the beginning of January.
PAHO is made up of people who work in the ministries and agencies directly controlled by the province. Approximately half of that workforce has had the option of working remotely up to twice a week from at least April 2022, when the Covid-19 pandemic decreased and the return plan to the Ontario office.
Removing that option is to cause a debate about its merits for productivity, employee’s well -being and attract talent.
Eliminate remote work has a particular impact on Union Amapceo, which represents 14,000 professional and administrative employees, many of whom chose the hybrid model of dividing their time between an office and home.
The president of Amapceo, Dave Bulmer, says that the decision of the Ford Government will affect both recruitment and retention in PAHO.
“I represent professionals, highly educated people who can choose where to work in the market, the best and most brilliant,” Bulmer said in an interview with Radio-channel.
“No one will come to an OPS that has no hybrid work,” he said. “We have many people who are with the operations that will probably move on now.”
‘Attract, develop, retain the best talents’
Bulmer argues that the government’s movement is against its own official human resources strategy, called Play People Plan.
The main objective declared in the Plan: “Attract, develop and retain the best talent that reflects the diversity of Ontario.”
Maria Gintova, assistant professor of Political Science and Public Policies at the McMaster University, has investigated the impact of flexible work agreements on public sector employees.
Those employees generally saw the mandatory rules of the office work as “the government that walks with their idea of how things should be done, without any consultations, and not listening to the public service,” he said in an interview with CBC News.
The Prime Minister of Ontario, Doug Ford, is ordering the 60,000 public servants in the province to return to the office full from January. Mike Crawley from CBC has the details.
Gintova, who previously had policy work in several Ontario ministries, says that allowing people to work remotely helps to boost diversity in the workforce by opening work to a geographically broader field of candidates.
“Remote work is a key to improving the balance between work and life,” Gintova added.
While Ford says he believes that government employees are more productive when they are in the office, Gintova says there is no evidence to suggest that it is accurate.
Mulroney spokesman defends the movement
A spokesman for the president of the Treasury Board, Caroline Mulroney, the Cabinet Minister who supervises PAHO, says that moving on to a standard of five days a week in the workplace reflects what is happening in the workplaces of Ontario.
“Our standard is also aligned with other provinces, cities and organizations throughout Canada,” said Mulroney Communications Director Andrea Chiappetta, in an email to CBC News.
“We trust our ability to attract and retain talent to public service,” said Chiappetta.
Provincial data put the billing rate in the public service of Ontario at six percent. The PAHO PEOPLE Plan includes an objective of reducing that to 4.2 percent by 2026.
The province also wants to increase another measure of the appeal of an OPS work: the number of applicants per vacancy. Has averaged 28.4, and the objective of the government is 42.8
Downloading the option to work remotely or helps attract talented people to the public sector or helps to keep them there, says Marion Nader, CEO of Nexus Strategy Group and former main advisor of the NDP ontarium.
“Close a large work pool because people now want that flexibility,” Nader said in an interview with CBC News. “People want flexibility to work at least from home a couple of days a week.”
Nader believes that the Ford government has a hidden reason with the plan: reduce the number of public service works through wear.
“The return to office policy is not productivity. It is more a staff reduction strategy for PAHO,” he said.
John Fraser, the Labor critic of the Liberal Party of Ontario, says that the Ford government must adopt a more reflective and balanced approach to the issue.
“Teleworking has benefits for our economy, the life of families and our environment,” said Fraser in an email. “The reality is that the world is going.”
The city of Brampton follows its example
The measure of the Ford government has already led to another public sector employer in Ontario to do the same.
The mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown, said Friday to plan to follow the example of the province and demand that the city staff return to work in the full -time office in an identical timeline.
Four of the great banks of Canada, RBC, Scotiabank, BMO and TD recently announced that the staff of their Toronto headquarters must spend at least four days a week in the office, from this fall.
The announcement of the province occurs only two weeks after Penapceo ratified a new collective agreement, and while the other important union that represents provincial public servants, Opseu, is in the midst of negotiations.
Hybrid work has “provided measurable benefits in productivity, retention and well -being,” Opseu said in a statement.
Ontario’s mandate for PAHO staff to be in the office four days per week enters into force on October 20, with the full -time rule at play on January 5, 2026.
Employees who currently have what is called an “alternative work agreement”, a formal and signed agreement to work from a different location, will not have to follow the new mandate in the office. A government official says they will remain valid until the expiration date in each agreement.
The two unions encourage members who still want to work remotely but do not have such an agreement to request them from the OPS administration.
